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Strategic Leadership in Public SectorAdministration in NigeriaJoy Onyinye Eliogu-AnenihWalden University

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Walden University

College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by

Joy Eliogu-Anenih

has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the review committee have been made.

Review Committee Dr. Ernesto Escobedo, Committee Chairperson,

Public Policy and Administration Faculty

Dr. Raj Singh, Committee Member, Public Policy and Administration Faculty

Dr. George Kieh, University Reviewer,

Public Policy and Administration Faculty

Chief Academic Officer Eric Riedel, Ph.D.

Walden University 2017

Abstract

Strategic Leadership in Public Sector Administration in Nigeria.

by

Joy Onyinye Eliogu-Anenih

MDevF, University of Stellenbosch, 2010

B.Eng, Enugu State University, 2001

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Public Policy and Administration

Walden University

February 2018

Abstract

Inefficiency in the public sector as a result of leadership ineptitude is said to have

contributed significantly to the underdevelopment of Nigeria. This has led to the

mismanagement of human and financial resources as well as contributed extensively to

poor service delivery to the citizens. The research considered the critical role of public

sector administration to the functionality of a society, noting that the major determinant

for public sector success is leadership effectiveness. The purpose of this qualitative

phenomenological study was to identify how leadership ineffectiveness could be

addressed in public sector administration in Nigeria and consider the implications of

adopting a different approach to improve effectiveness. The study was partly informed by

the dearth of literature on leadership in public sector administration, especially within the

Nigerian context. The study was underpinned by leadership theories particularly strategic

leadership. Research questions focused on existing leadership approaches and how it

hindered/enhanced effective service delivery. The study utilized a case study of Tertiary

Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and collected data through face-to-face interviews of

17 staff. Data was analyzed using content analysis and findings revealed the existence of

pseudo leadership and blame avoidance behaviour which are detrimental to public sector

efficiency. Recommendations are that strategic leadership, administrative accountability,

patriotism and reframing be adopted to refine leadership attitude to work in TETFund and

other public sector organizations. Application of findings will result in positive social

change by providing adequate service delivery for the Nigerian populace thus improving

their living standards and supporting economic growth.

Strategic Leadership in Public Sector Administration in Nigeria.

by

Joy Onyinye Eliogu-Anenih

MDevF, University of Stellenbosch, 2010

B.Eng, Enugu State University, 2001

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Public Policy and Administration

Walden University

February 2018

Dedication

This achievement is dedicated to my brother of blessed memory for whom I

always wanted to be better, even though you are gone, I will keep pushing forward and

ticking off milestones. You will always be cherished.

I dedicate this work to all positive change advocates, to public servants in Nigeria

and all around the world.

Acknowledgments

God has always been faithful to me, loving me unconditionally and providing the

grace to be an achiever. Thank you lord. Special appreciation goes to my dissertation

committee, Dr. Ernesto Escobedo, Dr. Raj Singh and Dr. George Kieh.

I could not have achieved this milestone without the remarkable support of my

family – my Cheerleaders. To my husband, I pray to have the opportunity to support you

like you did me. To my son, thank you for coloring, playing and of course whining when

I substituted class work for mummy/Kyle times. To my siblings, you are awesome. Love

you all to infinity.

Mum and Dad, Ugo unu tubelu m, kam gi aga.

The participants were amazing. This study would not be possible without these

distinguished people who willingly and selflessly contributed to my research by taking

the time to answer my questions. My wholehearted appreciation goes out to you.

To Dr. Bakari S. Girei, my internal supervisor who was a constant support

through this process, inspiring and pushing me to exceed my expectations of self. I could

never thank you enough.

To Nkoli & Nate, who kept on encouraging me and whose interest in my success I

have never doubted. You are that “friend” that everyone should have. I appreciate you.

i

Table of Contents

List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vi

List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study ....................................................................................1

Background ..............................................................................................................5

Public Sector Administration in Nigeria ................................................................11

Problem Statement .................................................................................................16

Purpose of the Study ..................................................................................................... 18

Research Questions ...............................................................................................18

Research Objectives ..............................................................................................19

Theoretical Framework .........................................................................................19

Nature of the Study ...............................................................................................21

Definition of Terms ...............................................................................................23

Assumptions ..........................................................................................................27

Limitations of Study .............................................................................................27

Scope of Study ......................................................................................................29

Delimitations .........................................................................................................30

Significance of the Study ....................................................................................351

Summary .............................................................................................................352

Chapter 2: Literature Review .............................................................................................35

Introduction ............................................................................................................35

Literature Search Strategy....................................................................................357

ii

Theoretical Foundation ........................................................................................358

Leadership ............................................................................................................358

Leadership Styles & Theories ................................................................................40

Trait Theory ...........................................................................................................44

Contingency/Situational Theory ............................................................................44

Behavioral Theory .................................................................................................35

Transactional Theory .............................................................................................47

Transformational Theory .......................................................................................48

Charismatic Theory ................................................................................................50

Strategic Leadership...............................................................................................50

Strategic leadership in Nigerian Public Sector Administration .............................54

Summary ................................................................................................................58

Transitional Statement Introduction ......................................................................59

Chapter 3: Research Method ..............................................................................................60

Introduction ............................................................................................................60

Research Design & Rationale ...............................................................................63

Role of the Researcher ...........................................................................................65

Methodology – Phenomenological Research.........................................................68

Case Study Method ................................................................................................73

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) ..................................................74

Central Phenomenon ..............................................................................................76

iii

Population ..............................................................................................................77

Sampling & Sample Size .......................................................................................77

Sampling Rationale ................................................................................................79

Sample Selection ....................................................................................................79

Sample Criteria ......................................................................................................80

Data Collection Process & Instrumentation ...........................................................81

Issues of Trustworthiness .......................................................................................83

Credibility ..............................................................................................................84

Transferability ........................................................................................................85

Dependability .........................................................................................................85

Confirmability ........................................................................................................86

Ethical Procedures .................................................................................................86

Summary ................................................................................................................89

Chapter 4: Results ..............................................................................................................90

Introduction ............................................................................................................90

Settings ...................................................................................................................91

Demographics ........................................................................................................92

Informed Consent...................................................................................................93

Data Collection ......................................................................................................95

Data Analysis .......................................................................................................100

Evidence of Trustworthiness................................................................................103

Credibility ............................................................................................................103

iv

Transferability ......................................................................................................104

Dependability .......................................................................................................105

Confirmability ......................................................................................................106

Presentation of Results .........................................................................................106

Infractions ............................................................................................................121

Summary ..............................................................................................................122

Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations ..........................................125

Introduction ..........................................................................................................125

Interpretation of the Findings...............................................................................125

Existing Public Sector Leadership .......................................................................126

Leadership Effectiveness .....................................................................................127

Meritocracy and the Federal Character Act .........................................................128

Blame Avoidance Behaviour (BAB) ...................................................................130

Pseudo Leadership ...............................................................................................132

Managers vs Leaders..........................................................................................1354

Lack of Trust ........................................................................................................134

Limitations of the Study.......................................................................................135

Recommendations ................................................................................................136

Strategy in Leadership Approach.........................................................................136

Administrative Accountability .............................................................................139

Capacity Building /Trainings ...............................................................................139

Implementation and Maintenance ........................................................................140

v

Feedback Mechanism...........................................................................................140

Reframing ............................................................................................................141

Patriotism .............................................................................................................141

Recommendations for Further Study ...................................................................142

Implications for Social Change ............................................................................144

Impact of the Research Process ...........................................................................145

Conclusion ...........................................................................................................146

References ........................................................................................................................148

vi

List of Tables

Table 1. Summary of Leadership Theories & Style ..........................................................42

Table 2. Participants and Frequency ..................................................................................93

Table 3. Leadership Summary in Public Sector Administration .....................................111

vii

List of Figures

Figure 1. Outcome of Ineffective Leadership ......................................................................3

Figure 1. The Role of Strategy in Public Sector Organisation ........................................138

1

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study

Leadership ineffectiveness in the Nigerian public sector is said to have

contributed significantly to the detriment of economic development (Okonjo-Iweala,

2012; Ejimabo, 2013; Ogbeide, 2012). This study focused on leadership ineffectiveness

in public sector administration as it affects service delivery and the implications of

exploring a different leadership approach for effectiveness. Since the productivity of any

organization is mostly a function of the effectiveness and quality of leadership (Sudha,

Shahnawaz, & Farhat, 2016; Branch, Hanushek & Rivkin, 2012), it is imperative to

examine the causes of leadership ineffectiveness with a view to proffer workable

solutions.

Nigeria is a public sector driven economy. Government policies and

developmental goals are set into motion through the public service machinery, which

actualizes government intentions through policy formulation and implementation. As

posited by Inyang & Akaegbu (2014), “the public service of any nation is an institution of

governance and administration established essentially to deliver public good to the people

in the most efficient and effective manner”. Consequently, the ineffective management of

different public organizations could ultimately lead to failure, underperformance and

contribute to underdevelopment of the economy with the attendant effects such as

poverty and insecurity. Mark & Asheazi (2016) is of the opinion that the Nigerian people

are gradually sliding into poverty.

Studies and opinions had attributed the issues of underdevelopment and stagnancy

in economic growth beleaguering Nigeria to public sector inefficiency (Adanri, 2016),

2

lack of institutional capacity (Adegbite, 2015), systemic government failures (Porter &

Watts, 2016), Fraud and Ghost workers (Onyinyechi & Okafor, 2016), challenges of

good governance (Oluwa, 2012), lack of leadership skills (Sanusi, 2012), pervasive

administrative corruption (Enofe, Afiangbe & Agha, 2017; Ogbeide, 2012),

personalization of leadership (Dike, 2014), weak foreign policies (Ibijola & Opeyemi,

2013), insecurity & cultural disorientation (Aloziewu 2012, Anyadike 2013), religious

and cultural diversity (Gilbert & Allen, 2014; Erhagbe, 2012), struggle for supremacy

and absence of patriotism (Ogoloma, 2012), and reliance on resource wealth (Luong &

Weinthal, 2006), abuse of office (Okogbule & Nkpolu, 2016), among others.

Central to all the above identified factors, is ineffective leadership (Okonjo-

Iweala, 2012; Sanusi, 2012). Iheduru (2016) buttresses this by stating that Nigerian is

plagued by leadership failure. Okonjo-Iweala (2012) further stated that the poor

economic situation in Nigeria can be credited to weak public institutions bedeviled by

entrenched corruption. Ejimabo (2013) collaborates this assertion, affirming that public

service has deteriorated due to the resultant effects of corruption and a lack of effective

leadership skills.

3

Figure 1. Outcome of Ineffective Leadership.

Adanri & Thakkar (2016) and Hansen & Villadsen (2010) are of the opinion that

there is a scarcity of literature regarding leadership in public administration, specifically

on the significance of administrative leadership of public sector organizations. Hassan &

Lituchy (2017) supports the above statement by noting that the majority of literature on

leadership in Nigeria laid emphasis on political leadership, leadership and personality,

and employee performance. Wart (2003) states that there is scarce literature on public

4

sector leadership and Tummers & Knies (2013) suggests that there is a need for a well-

designed leadership studies in public administration. Although many studies have been

conducted on the effects of bad leadership in Nigeria from different perspectives, it is

striking that I found nothing specifically written on strategic leadership as an alternative

leadership style for public sector administration in Nigeria.

This is even more striking considering the position of Sudha, Shahnawaz, &

Farhat (2016) that leadership style is the most essential factor that influences leadership

effectiveness. Akindele & Afolabi (2013) posits that the essence of leadership

effectiveness lies in the fact that the success of any human or organizational endeavor lie

in the quality of leadership guiding that endeavor. Consequently, this study attempted to

fill the literature gap on leadership and public administration by exploring the possibility

of adopting/adapting a new style of leadership that would improve the quality and output

of public service in Nigeria.

The implications of this study for social change are that the expected outcome of

this inquiry will ultimately improve the living conditions of the Nigerian populace. As

noted by Sanusi (2012), there is a need for leadership grooming and development in

Nigeria. Thus, exploring and proffering an emergent leadership style which focuses on

strategy first before implementation of actions would enhance leadership effectiveness

which would galvanize improved public sector administration and ultimately promote

better service delivery and efficiency in the public sector.

It would encourage leaders and aspiring leaders to broaden their scope, to think

outside the box in terms of indepth research on ways to enhance effectiveness that would

5

propel economic growth. Social change from this study could manifest in the form of

general awareness to the directional and pivotal role that a leader plays in public sector

administration. It would also be a tool for social awareness to an alternative approach to

leadership effectiveness for future leaders.

In this chapter, I provided the purpose and rationale for the study. I provided the

background of the study and discussed the leadership challenges of Nigeria in the context

of public sector administration and what it encompasses. I stated the questions that

guided the study and the method of enquiry which was used. I expounded on the

significance of the study and justified the need for a different approach to public sector

management. The scope of study, its limitations and delimitations was also stated and

explained. In line with the requirements of research processes, I discussed my ethical

position in relation to the study. Some key terms and definitions were also included in

this chapter.

Background

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is classified as a developing nation located in the

south-eastern corner of West Africa. It is the most populous nation in West Africa with

about 181million people. The country is a petrostate as it is endowed with oil wealth,

being the thirteenth largest producer of oil in the world (The World Factbook, CIA, 2016)

and that constitutes the major source of Nigeria’s income. Other sources of income

include taxes, agricultural exports and other mineral resources. The country generated

N41.6 trillion revenue from crude oil proceeds and taxes, as well as duties between fiscal

years 2011 & 2014 (Guardian Newspaper, June 20, 2015).

6

There has been a mismatch between economic development and the standard of

living in the country when compared to revenue generated. As a potentially rich nation,

Nigeria has been unable to adequately provide basic services for its citizen in relation to

its wealth. Sanusi (2012) posited that in relation to Nigeria’s resource endowment, the

economy has grossly underperformed. As at 2015, the United Nations Human

Development Index (HDI) puts Nigeria at 0.514, Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

of 0.28, life expectancy of 52.8, Gender Development Index of 0.84 and ranked 152 out

of 188 countries assessed.

There are complexities to the Nigerian State arising from the diversity in culture,

religion and languages coupled with high level of poverty and illiteracy as illustrated in

the preceding paragraph. Doud (2016) opines that the diversity in Nigeria has led to

intolerance and divisiveness that has spilt over into the political realm thereby becoming

a destabilizing factor in the country by encouraging a struggle for political dominance.

Diversity also plays a role in leadership in the country as the need to identify with a

particular group tends to affect decision making. This is consistent with Miao, Newman,

& Lamb, (2012) position that leaders use identification to garner support and

commitment to their goals especially in a culturally diverse and developing nation.

Corruption has been identified as the most significant factor responsible for

Nigeria’s’ economic developmental failure and the institutionalization of corruption can

be attributed leadership ineffectiveness (Ogbeide, 2012). Writing within the context of

Nigeria, Badamasiuy & Bello (2013) opined that the lapses on the part of leaders have

allowed corruption and maladministration to thrive. Corruption is a deterrent to public

7

sector productivity because it feeds off mismanagement of resources, abuse of power and

the negligent administration of the public sector.

Rose-Ackerman & Palifka (2016) defined corruption as the abuse of entrusted

power for private gain. Agbiboa (2012) attributes corruption to an African leadership trait

where governments loot their countries’ resources through violence and bribery, entrench

corruption and default on service delivery. Chinua Achebe summed the country’s

problem up to “leadership failure”. He said “A functioning, robust democracy requires a

healthy educated, participatory followership and an educated, morally grounded

leadership” in reference to the leadership and corruption issues prevalent in Nigeria

(1983).

Economically, ineffective leadership can be classified as a crime because it has

allowed corruption which Agbiboa (2013) describes as an “economic crime” to thrive.

Corruption encompasses a wide range of practices including bribery, extortion, nepotism,

cronyism, judicial fraud, accounting fraud, electoral fraud, public service fraud,

kleptocracy, embezzlement of public funds, influence peddling and conflicts of interest

(Eguejiofor, 2016; Rose-Ackerman & Palifka, 2016) which are all indices of ineffective

leadership.

All over the world, one key indicator of ineffective leadership is prevalence of

corruption in doing government business. According to the Transparency International

2015 Report, Nigeria’s Corruption Perception Index for 2015 is 26/100, placing the

country in 136th position out of a total of 167 countries scored

8

(http://www.transparency.org/cpi2015) and concluded that Nigeria is amongst the most

corrupt countries in the world.

Through the years, Nigeria has been striving to address the scourge of corruption

originating especially from the public sector but also from the private sector. Elected

governments have always come up with an anti-corruption plan which often times is

unsuccessful. President Muhammad Buhari led administration has instituted various

policies to curb this malaise. One of such established policies is the Treasury Single

Account (TSA) that requires all public organizations to maintain a single account

domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Treasury Single Account (TSA) initiative

is the operation of a unified structure for Government Bank Accounts, in a single account

or a set of linked accounts for all Government payments and receipts

(www.cenbank.org). It is intended to reduce and possibly end the diversion of public

funds into private accounts by public officers.

Though the government expresses commitment to eradicate corrupt practices in

the country, corruption is institutionalized and has so many outlets. Mr. Femi Falana

while delivering the keynote speech at a round table on “Winning the War against

Corruption” said;

“The Nigerian government is not yet winning the war on corruption despite the

overwhelming evidence available to it. Apart from the class solidarity usually extended to

politically exposed persons by judges in all capitalist societies, the situation is

compounded in Nigeria by judicial corruption and professional misconduct on the part of

9

senior lawyers involved in the defense of corruption cases” (Retrieved from

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/ ).

One of the many deterrents to the struggle to end corruption is the Nigerian

tolerance for corruption. In many countries, a person that is linked to corrupt practice(s)

of any kind, becomes unworthy of public office. The case is different in Nigeria. Being

linked to any form of corruption is not immediately seen as a negative or bad thing. A

typical example is the case of a Former Minister of Aviation – Stella Oduah, who had to

resign in 2014 due to the purchase of two bullet proof cars at an inflated of N255million

(USD 1 = N 199 at the time) but emerged as an elected Senator in 2015 (Ekene &

Ugwunwanyi, 2016).

It is definitive of the Nigerian value system that corruption is often times

explainable or defendable. According to Olatunji (2015), our societal values and ethics

often times dictates our conscious appreciation of accountability. He further stated that

Nigeria is a country where financial embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds

by public servants is seen as a virtue instead of a bad vice. This is further exemplified by

the celebration of the recent release of James Ibori, former Governor of Delta State, from

prison after serving jail term in the United Kingdom for corruption and money

laundering. He returned to widespread Jubilation from many Nigerians.

(https://guardian.ng/opinion/the-return-of-ibori/). In part, one can attribute this attitude of

acceptance to the inexcusable delay or non-commitment to the administration of justice

by the Nigerian Judicial System (John & Musa, 2014).

10

It is important to note that the Nigerian Government upon return to democracy in

1999, has put some policies & reforms in place to fight corruption. This includes the

public service reforms (monetization) and public procurement reforms, the reinforcement

of existing anti- corruption agencies such as the Code of Conduct Bureau and Code of

Conduct Tribunal, the establishment of anti-corruption agencies such as the Economic

and Financial Crime Commission and Independent Corruption and other Practices

Commission. Despite these measures by the Government, corruption still strives

(Mohammed, 2013). This further arguments the assertions of leadership ineffectiveness

in the Nigerian public sector.

In spite of the glaring deleterious effects of corruption, it is important to note that

there is a school of thought that shares a different view on corruption. This theory

assumes that corruption brings about development and progress. Henry (2012) talks about

the “grease hypothesis” explaining that grease money can also be called speed money as

it is used to circumvent the slow pace of normal bureaucratic process thereby accelerating

prosperity and a nation’s growth.

Kolstad & Wiig (2013) posits that corruption is often beneficial to host countries

as it encourages foreign direct investment from multinational corporations who in turn

have access to the host nations’ resource by easing the constraints of bureaucracy through

bribery. Although this theoretical assumption is discussed at an informal level to justify

corrupt practices prevalent in Nigeria at the official level, however, it is considered illegal

and relevant laws were enacted to curb its prevalence. The extent to which corruption is

11

curbed in Nigeria is dependent on effective leadership across every strata of public sector

administration.

Public Sector Administration in Nigeria

Public administration is what government does (Shafritz & Russell, 2011). It is a

series of policy making activities that is geared towards a country’s development &

growth. In defining public administration, it is important to situate it in the particular

country context because public administration differs in different environment, culture

and society (Shafritz, 2015). In Nigeria, public administration encompasses all

government activities that utilizes human resources to manage public affairs. Through

evaluations, negotiations and lobbying, administration of public resources happens and it

is implemented by the public sector which is made up of the following governmental

agencies grouped into;

a) The Civil Service: the career personnel of the presidency, ministers, Extra –

Ministerial Departments, the National Assembly and the Judiciary.

b) The Armed Forces, the Police, Other Security Agencies e.g Para – Military

organizations

c) The Parastatals or Public Enterprises.

The public sector is government‘s policy implementation tool. In a nut shell, the

functions of public service include revenue generation, management, monitoring &

implementation of policies – economic, political & social and service delivery to the

people. Antithetically, Porter & Watts (2016) is of the view that there is a case of

misplaced priorities and a lack of institutional capacity to “promote economically

12

productive or socially equitable investments, or deliver public goods – justice, security,

services, livelihoods – effectively and democratically”.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria operates a three tiered system of government

namely – Federal, State and Local Government. At all levels of government, the general

perception is that the public sector is complacent, morally bankrupt, lazy, irresponsible,

uncaring and generally lacking integrity as well as the key ethical leadership principles of

respect, service, justice, honesty and community.

The quality of the public service largely determines the pace of development of

any nation (Murtala & Marshall, 2015). This position strengthens the negative perception

of the Nigerian public servants due to the level of underdevelopment in the country in

relation to the revenue generated. It is important to stress the critical role of public service

in the enforcement of government policies towards the delivery of quality public service.

Achebe (1983) notes that the Nigerian problem is a direct result of leadership failure and

“the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge

of personal example which is the hallmark of true leadership”.

The leadership problem can be attributed to the personality, approach, aspirations,

motivations and values of the person in the leadership position. These positions are

opportunities to create social change by working within the lines of ethics, equity,

morality, strategy and most importantly, the code of conduct for the organization. The

Nigerian public sector seemingly lacks such leadership. It could be as a result of the

complexities of the countries diversity and problems of management in a constantly

changing state of governance. Agbiboa (2012) attributes the state of underdevelopment in

13

Nigeria on corruption and bad leadership prevalent in both private and public sector as it

has become the main engine of activity.

The public sector is the major channel for resource allocation, expenditure and

policy administration in Nigeria and that defines its control of the economy. The public

sector serves as a conduit through which resources flow down to the private sector and to

individuals. Oroh (2002) states that “Public administration is the machinery by which

government performs its activities”. This refers to the networks by which the federal

government fulfills its economic developmental goals. Management of the public sector

basically entails the implementation of government policies through the administration of

resources and delivery of services to the populace. It should be carried out in tandem

with political, economic, social and environmental demands. A public administrators’

end goal is service delivery and as such, must be able to explain their conduct, allocation

of time and other resources (Cooper, 2012) for the fulfilment of overall objectives. Since

leaders in the public sector are also administrators, they are accountable for their

decisions, actions and the consequences thereof.

The administrative challenge that Nigeria faces revolves around the synergy

between leadership and corruption. Nigeria’s foremost anti-corruption agency - The

Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has

traced the high rate of corruption in the country to the nation's value system (Ossai,

2011), stating that poor leadership is one of the major enforcers of corruption. The

institutionalized corruption in the leadership of Nigeria has persisted through different

regimes, through the military to the democratic government.

14

The leadership issue in Nigeria is such that many of those empowered into

management positions (Either through public service progression or appointment), view

it as an opportunity to exercise power, grant favors and acquire wealth. Most often people

are appointed based on political or familial affiliations instead of competence and

oftentimes ill-equipped persons are put in key positions. This is a contributory factor in

breeding leaders who have no appreciation of the requirements for leader effectiveness.

Achebe (1983) posits that the inability of leaders to lead effectively stems from the

system of choosing public servants into positions as a way of rewarding them. This

patronage encourages them to act selfishly and take decisions based on parochial interests

with its deleterious consequences to the Nigerian nation.

There is little thought to leadership by example or the comprehension of the

influence that is triggered by negative leadership. It is very important to note that without

followership there will be no leadership, so basically followers shadow a leader, emulate

their behaviors and even try to do better than a leader in every way, good or bad. A

fallout of leadership ineffectiveness as opined by Ikokwu (2011) is that grand corruption

has led to the personalization of public wealth, stating that democracy and development

suffers due to the practiced abuse of public power and resources for private gain and thus

stagnating the civic service.

Leadership is about optimizing self-management for the collective goal of

influencing people management and output to the betterment of the organization and by

extension, the country. Burke (2011) states that leadership is the capacity to influence

others to the achievement of a common mission and goal. This is further buttressed by

15

Hickman’s (2010) definition of leadership as leaders inducing followers to act for certain

goals that represent the values and the motivations – the wants and needs, the aspirations

and expectations – of both leaders and followers. Leadership can be described as an

opportunity to add value to people you work with, thereby garnering voluntary

followership while optimally fulfilling organizational goals within ethical and

professional limits. What the Nigerian public administrators mostly ignore is that a leader

is highly influential whether in a negative or positive way. Past leaders have paved the

way for the “turn by turn”. People queue to get to that leadership position so they can do

what the others have done and even beat the record of the last leader.

Effective management of the Nigerian public sector is expected to transform it

into a stable institution with guiding principles for decision making which enhances good

governance to prevail. It is crucial to national development that the public sector

organization be anchored upon strong strategic leadership and good governance to ensure

the country’s economic and social priorities are forthright. It is safe to say that there will

be no equitable administration of public affairs without ethical practices and strategic

leadership.

Public officers, government functionaries, executive and legislative arms of

government must not only be seen to be fair, equitable and just, showing transparency in

all their activities but also ensure that no citizen is victimized or favored because of

his/her political, religious, ethnic persuasions and orientations. Cooper (2012) states that

an administrator must be able to explain their conduct, allocation of time and other

resources as is consistent with the work plan and objectives of the organization. In

16

essence a leader should be able to justify the need for their decisions, actions and the

consequences thereof. The study will be concentrating on a parastatal under the Federal

Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

Problem Statement

Service delivery and public sector productivity are abysmal in Nigeria and this,

according to several researchers can be linked to ineffective leadership of public sector

organizations. Okonjo –Iweala (2012) asserts that the lack of effective leadership in the

Nigerian public sector has led to a failed public institution plagued with mismanagement

of resources and inadequate service delivery. Badamasiuy & Bello (2013) supports this

position by stating that the leadership ineffectiveness has allowed corruption and

maladministration to thrive for decades. Due to misappropriation of resources, Nigeria is

burdened with the inability to provide of basic infrastructures like roads, schools,

healthcare system, electricity and water (Ejimabo, 2013). There is a relationship between

leadership, public sector and economic growth. Simply put:

a. Economic growth is determined by government as it is a prerequisite to gauge the

improvement of social welfare for citizens in a developing country (Rodrik,

2014);

b. “The development of any nation is engendered by the effectiveness of its various

institute\ns” (Olowookere & Elegbeleye, 2013);

c. Government depends on the public sector to implement its economic growth

policies and plans. (Murtala & Marshall, 2015);

17

d. Leadership of the public sector is essential to the effectiveness of their

performance (Mora & Ţiclău 2012); and

e. Economic growth/development is the product of effective leadership

(Ogbeide, 2012).

Adanri (2016) is of the view that the underdevelopment in Nigeria is a result of

public sector inefficiency due to leadership ineffectiveness. Leadership in the public

sector has been derailed largely by personal agenda and political interference to the

detriment of economic development (Okonjo-Iweala, 2012). This leadership failure is

manifest in the quality of service rendered, in the prevalence of corrupt practices that

occur in the federal government ministries and also from unfavorable attitude to work

displayed by the employees in the civil service. Ejimabo (2013) asserts that public service

has been greatly neglected, precipitating deterioration as a result of corruption and lack of

effective leadership skills.

Musgrave (2014) posits that public sector is critical for a society to function

properly and Mora & Ţiclău (2012) views effective leadership as a major condition for

public sector success. Haslam & Reicher, (2016) estimates that organizations in the

United States spend about $14billion yearly on leadership trainings. This is significant

because it shows the importance of leadership effectiveness for the progress and growth

of any organization. Therefore, there is a need to rethink the philosophy of leadership and

its effectiveness in Nigeria. Thus, taking into consideration that different

situations/organizations/levels require different types of leadership for effectiveness (Van

18

Mart, 2014), this study sought to explore how strategic leadership approach can be a

viable option for effective public sector administration in Nigeria.

Carter & Green (2013) notes that the values that reinforce leadership

styles/actions are critical to leadership effectiveness, while Ossai (2011) posits that

Nigeria’s value system is lacking in the prerequisite particulars to reduce corruption and

promote effective leadership. This study therefore looked at the role that value plays in

strategic leadership from a Nigerian perspective.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to identify how

leadership ineffectiveness could be addressed in public sector administration in Nigeria. I

considered the implications of adopting a strategic leadership approach as an option for

public sector administration in Nigeria. The outcome of the study was envisioned to

address the challenges of public sector administration with a view to ultimately improve

service delivery and support economic growth.

Research Questions

The research questions are as follows;

RQ1: What leadership approach currently exist in public sector administration

in Nigeria, with particular reference to Tertiary Education Trust Fund

(TETFund)?

RQ2: How does the leadership approach adopted by TETFund hinder/enhance

effective service delivery?

19

RQ3: How can the adoption of strategic leadership approach address the challenges (if

any) of TETFund as a for public sector organization in Nigeria?

Research Objectives

This study sets out to critically evaluate leadership effectiveness in public sector

administration in Nigeria. The major objectives of this research work revolve around

determining and understanding the extent to which leadership effectiveness is pivotal to

success of public sector administration. Therefore, the following are the objectives of this

research project:

1. To understand leadership effectiveness on public sector administration.

2. To determine the existing leadership style and its effect on public sector

administration.

3. To explore how the adoption of strategic leadership in the Nigerian public sector

could facilitate effective leadership for the promotion of productivity, efficiency

and economic development of Nigeria.

4. The role that value plays in strategic leadership from a Nigerian perspective.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework of this research is underpinned specifically by

Strategic leadership theory. To appreciate strategic leadership theory, one has to review

some leadership theories which include transformational, transactional, emergent,

situational theories (Meuser et al, 2016; Ehrhart, 2015; Dinh, Lord, Gardner, Meuser,

Liden & Hu, 2014; Goethals, Allison, Kramer, & Messick, 2014; Avolio & Yammarino,

2013; Hall, 2013). I is exploring the intricacies involved in the adoption of strategic

20

leadership in public sector administration in Nigeria hence the particular consideration of

strategic leadership theory (Oladele, Akeke, Adebisi & Adeusi, 2013; Hagen, Vaicys, &

Hassan, 2011; Serfontein, 2010; Hitt & Duane, 2002).

The emergence of leadership theories was borne out of a need to enhance

organizational effectiveness and efficiency (Newton, 2012). Basically, leadership is about

getting work done through effective utilization of resources. Leadership style on the other

hand, refers to how a leader goes about achieving organization goals (Haslam, Reicher, &

Platow, 2015; Goethals et al, 2014; Van Mart, 2014). This study explores the viability of

adopting strategic leadership as an alternative leadership style to address problems related

to leadership effectiveness in public sector administration in Nigeria. Van Mart (2014) is

of the view that though leadership theories have some similarities, applying leadership is

complex as it has to do with skill assessment and behavioral competencies in a variety of

situations.

In the review of these theories, I took cognizance of the fact that values are a

defining attribute of a leader and that it is partly responsible for the interpretation and

implementation of public policies that have far reaching outcomes / consequences, hence

the need to understand the role of values in strategic leadership. Wright, Moynihan, &

Pandey, (2012) states that “Leaders can influence public service motivation through

several mechanisms, including engaging employees’ existing values, infusing jobs with

meaning, and highlighting and rewarding public service values”. Consequently, this

research would also explore the social theory of value hoping to draw linkages between

the values that reinforce strategic leadership and leadership effectiveness.

21

Nature of Study

The nature of this study is situated in an interpretive and critical methodological

paradigm. Wang & Zhu (2016) theorizes that paradigm encompasses all assumptions on

the nature of social reality. Scotland (2012) explains that epistemology, ontology,

methodology and methods are the components of a paradigm and according to Thanh &

Thanh (2015), paradigm explores the nature of knowledge, the methodology and the

criteria for validity in research. Interpretive research is concerned with the meaning(s)

that people assign an experience as it constitutes their reality in the course of trying to

understand a phenomena.

I chose an interpretive paradigm based on its ontological position of relativism

which queries the nature of reality as understood through multiple views (Creswell,

2013). Relativism views reality as a social construct of meaning that varies from person

to person. (Paleček & Risjord, 2013; Scotland, 2012). To understand leadership

effectiveness, I needed to explore the individual experiences of people that have headed

public organizations and people who have worked with leaders in the Nigerian public

sector.

My aim was to proffer another leadership style to enhance effectiveness in public

sector administration and facilitate change, as such the study is further located in the

critical paradigm. Review of literature showed that consequence of ineffective leadership

is poor service deliver and low standard of living which could be seen as a social injustice

to the Nigerian people. Wang & Zhu (2016) explains that the critical theory takes into

22

account the power, political and ideological factors influencing a phenomenon with a

view to changing the status quo for better.

Scotland (2012) asserts that critical epistemology is based on real life phenomena

linked to political and societal ideology which questions values and assumption with the

aim of resultant societal change. Most importantly, critical theory was underpinned by a

change agenda as it goes beyond understanding to critiquing existing condition and

raising awareness to inform change (Patton, 2015).

The research was explored through an interactive medium which qualitative

method provides, and in the case of this research particularly phenomenological research

design is considered most appropriate. The theoretical framework in phenomenology

looks beyond the surface to the inner, thus basing the research from the inside out. It

attempted to see or understand the world through the eyes of others while maintaining a

philosophical edge to it. Creswell (2013) defines qualitative method as an inquiry

process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a complex,

holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants, and

conducted in a natural setting. An important characteristic of qualitative research that

makes it suitable for this study is the fact that I is the key instrument of research and this

study requires face to face interactions with participants for optimal and holistic data

collection.

Qualitative inquiry was instrumental in my exploration of the values that shape or

determine the decisions that are made by leaders in the public sector in Nigeria while

exploring some leadership theories. These theories include pragmatic leadership theories,

23

responsible leadership theories, transformational leadership theories, transactional

leadership theories, servant-leadership theories, charismatic leadership theories, value

theories and especially strategic leadership theories. Atieno (2009) is of the opinion that

qualitative research simplifies and manages data while retaining its intricacy and context.

Qualitative research method would help me understand the thought process and opinions

of workers in the public service.

Definitions of Terms

A detailed analysis of any subject matter requires definition of key words and

concepts. This not only ensured that any ambiguity is preempted but also prepares the

reader for clarity in line with my intentions. Some key words in this study include;

Public Administration: Refers to all activities and processes carried out by public

servants in the management and delivery of government policies and programmes to the

populace. Henry (2015) opines that public administration promotes the relationship

between government and the governed, employing effective managerial practices to

institute public policies to the benefit of the citizenry. Putting it simply, it is the

translation of politics into reality. Public administration speaks to the effectiveness and

efficiency of government (Kettl, 2015).

Leadership: Burke (2011) states that leadership is the capacity to influence others

to the achievement of a common mission and goal. Leadership is about influence and that

influence is a reciprocal process. Leadership can also be described as an opportunity to

add value to people that one works with, thereby garnering voluntary followership while

optimally fulfilling organizational goals within ethical and professional limits.

24

Leadership effectiveness: this primarily depends on the right leader and is defined

as the ability to motivate a person/group through continuous interaction to surpass their

expectation based on their knowledge, without supervision (John & Chattopadhyay,

2015).

Public Administrators: They are key players in the formulation, structuring,

delegating & deployment of government strategies and policies. They have discretionary

powers to implement these government policies as they deem fit within cultural,

institutional and legal limits (Henry, 2015). Public administrators include politicians,

public servants and technocrats responsible for driving government policies and

implementing government agendas, they work in public departments and agencies, at all

levels of government.

Politics: Politics plays a major role in public sector leadership as most heads of

public sector organizations are political appointees. Pettigrew (2014) defines politics as

the exploitation of human and physical resources for the achievement of control over

others.

Paradigm: Paradigm is a set of basic beliefs that constitute the background for

research (Guba & Lincoln, 1994).

Interpretive Paradigm: interpretive paradigm is reasoning in a bid to understand

a social phenomenon based on the subjective understanding of individuals who have

experienced this phenomenon (Wang & Zhu, 2016). In other words, interpretive

paradigm is a quest to understand the world from the different perspectives of people.

25

Ethics: Ethics is the study of moral conducts and moral status. It seeks to clarify

the logic and adequacy of the values that shape the world, assessing the moral

possibilities which are projected and portrayed in the social give and take (Cooper, 2012).

Decision Making: It is a calculated and rationale thought process involved in the

selection of options or alternatives available in the consideration of an action. NIŢĂ &

Solomon (2015) defines it as the use of a set of criteria to choose from options for action.

It is the central concept for policy making which is a significant role of leaders.

Values: this can be defines as the supervisory principle that dictates the actions of

individuals or the foundation for organizational strategy. It determines culture, behavior

and interaction in any situation.

Phenomenology: A qualitative research design that explores a phenomenon

through the lived experiences of participants.

Parastatal: Predominantly in African countries, parastatals are organizations

wholly or partly owned by the government to support government agencies. In some

countries like Nigeria, they are mostly an offshoot of Federal Ministries.

Hermeneutic phenomenology: an aspect of phenomenology proffered by Martin

Heidregger (1889-1976). It posits that there is a subjective nature to human experience

which begs understanding.

Ontology: is concerned with the subject and objective nature of reality. A

researcher needs to understand the ontological position of his exploration to be able to

define his epistemology.

26

Epistemology: It is a component of the research paradigm which asks the question

- how do we know that we know? What is the source of knowledge?

Leadership theories: Leadership theories such as transformational, transactional

and situational leadership explore the different types of leadership styles, their values,

motivations and the consequences thereof.

Negative Leadership: The other side of leadership that adversely affects followers

and outcomes, stemming from the wrong priorities and deleterious personality.

Blame Avoidance behavior (BAB): connotes all behaviors exhibited by

administrators to avoid any responsibility in the event of a blame-attracting situation.

(Hinterleitner, (2017))

Critical theory: is concerned with changing the status quo, it strives for social

justice by utilizing emancipatory politics. It is underpinned by fundamental guiding

principles. (Pease & Cook, 2016)

Meritocracy: is defined as advancement in society based on individual

capabilities and merit rather than as a result of political, familial or societal influence.

(Kim & Choi, 2017)

Relativism: believes that the interpretation of a person’s reality varies per person.

(Scotland, 2012).

Abuse of office: refers to the use of the powers conferred on a public servant by

right of his position/office to misappropriate and divert the resources of his office for

personal gains instead of using it for the judicious discharge of his duties (Okogbule &

Nkpolu, 2016).

27

Pseudo Leadership: leadership that is self-serving against the collective or

institutional interest (Pandey, Davis, Pandey, & Peng, 2016).

Assumptions

A qualitative research began with assumptions and the use of interpretive/

theoretical frameworks that informed the study of research problems addressing the

meaning individuals or groups assign to a social or human problem (Creswell 2013). In

the course of the study, I assumed the following:

1. That the participants that will be interviewed during data gathering are

knowledgeable about public sector administration, leadership effectiveness and

have directly experienced administrational leadership.

2. That the participants will answer truthfully to the best of their capability and

knowledge.

3. That the journals and secondary resources studied for the literature review have

provided accurate truthful information on public sector administration,

leadership, leadership theories and leadership style.

4. That all documents collected in the process of data gathering will be authentic and

reliable.

Limitations of Study

The limitations of this study revolve around data collection issues, researcher and

participant bias. Leadership behavior is a sensitive issue as no one wants to admit to any

form of irresponsibility, incompetence, prejudicial or unethical behaviors in relation to

public sector administration. Consequently, I would likely encounter abridged or

28

ambiguous answers to interview questions. Data collection for the study will be primarily

gotten from face to face interviews but there is the alternative of using secondary data

collection in the event that I was unable to conduct all interviews as scheduled and as

such the advantage of primary data is reduced.

It is important to note that I work in Tertiary Education Trust Fund which is the

public sector organization where data will be collected from. This could be an advantage

to the study as the interviewees might be more relaxed with me due to pre-existing

familiarity. It could also have a negative effect on data gathering, as my acquaintance

with the organization might produce tailored and surface answers to interview questions,

thus reducing the quality of data collected. The familiarity could also mean that there will

be an imbalance of power while interviewing because hierarchically, some of the

participants are my superiors and that might affect flow of interview process. The

perceptions of participants on the central issues of leadership effectiveness may vary and

also their interpretation, expression or articulation of their views will contrast, this means

that the onus lies on me to streamline data collected.

I would ensure that all questions are clear and concise enough so as to encourage

clarity in response. The retelling of events often leads to exaggerations or redistribution

of events so I would have to authenticate some information garnered at the interviews.

Participants’ might be susceptible to instances of self-awareness during the interview and

this might hinder full disclosure which could mean that all relevant data needed for this

research might not be fully accessed. There was a potential bias on my part, based on

29

some inside knowledge of the organization, this could be mitigated by means of looking

beyond the preconceptions, in essence bracketing (Tufford & Newman, 2012).

To mitigate this problem, I tendered a full disclosure of all particulars of the

study. I also employed verbal persuasion to allay the fears of the officials concerned

assuring them of confidentiality and assuring concerned officers/managers that

information divulged to me would only be used for academic purposes. A positive to the

data collection process is that the cadre of purposefully selected participants guarantees

that enough information will be garnered given that they are in the position to give out

these information.

Time constraints would also constitute a limitation of this research proposal. This

was because the research study was time based, and thus I might not have adequate time

to thoroughly gather data and still meet up with the submission dates as planned.

Scope of Study

The scope of the research work focuses leadership effectiveness of public sector

administrators while taking into consideration their immense ability to contribute to

economic and national growth. It would be limited to a critical, comprehensive

understanding and working knowledge of public sector, public sector administration,

leadership theories, decision making process, and strategic leadership of the Nigerian

public sector. It would also explore the effects of negative leadership and its

consequences, distinguishing it from bad leadership.

The target population is the general public service and since this

phenomenological study is located in a case study of Tertiary Education Trust Fund,

30

Abuja, the sample size will be gotten from staff of the stated public sector organization.

The participants for this study were leaders at different levels in this organization and

some staff who have been opportune to work with different leaders.

Delimitations

Some of the delimiting factors that might be encountered in the course of this

study are time constraints in terms of data collection. The study was restricted to public

servants with a minimum of 10years work experience in the public sector. This was done

to ensure that the participants have experienced leadership of different types as the public

service undergoes timely rotations in the course of work.

In other words, the study was also indirectly restricted to the knowledge and

perceptions of the participants on leadership effectiveness in the public sector

administration. The willingness of participants to be truthful and factual is recognized as

a delimiting factor. Scheduling interviews at the convenience of the public officers who

were my participants might not align suitably with the time allotted for the dissertation in

its entirety. Lastly, inability to gather the sufficient data primarily would dictate that I

resort to the use of secondary data to complete the dissertation.

Significance of the Research

The significance of this study lay in the fact that it is sectionalizing the leadership

problem in Nigeria by considering leadership effectiveness as a challenge and a solution

to economic growth. In view of the prevailing economic recession in Nigeria as noted by

Soniyi & Akinwale (2016), it is imperative that Nigeria’s public sector leaders effectively

and efficiently manage available public resources to achieve optimal results and deliver

31

adequate services to the populace. It is significant because the public sector is a vehicle

through which all levels of the Nigerian government drive national growth as it cuts

across all the states in the federation and as such, a progressive change in the productivity

and service delivery from this sector would make a positive impact on the economy and

development.

Another practical significance of the study is the possibility that the findings of

this research could be used for further improvement of the institute of public service in

Nigeria. It would contribute to the formulation of a comprehensive framework of

measures aimed at combating corruption, improving the quality and transparency of

public administration and lastly the moral regulation of behavior of public officers. This

would translate to better quality of life for citizens of the country. The overarching goal

of public administration is economic development that will bring about social change as

it will positively impact the lives and welfare of the populace.

Its importance would also be appreciated by other researchers, serving as a

resource material when conducting studies in areas of strategy, strategic leadership,

organizational performance, ethics, leadership, public administration, the Nigerian

economy, good governance, accountability and to those who want to explore other

sectors for the improvement and general economic development of Nigeria. It is expected

that the suggestions in this study would be of immense help to the staff and operatives of

federal, state and local authorities as well as interested members of the public and other

stakeholders, who are all seeking means of implementing quick, efficient, and responsive

government administration and services based on effective leadership.

32

Summary

The summary of the study in laid out in five (5) chapters as follows:

In Chapter I, I introduced Nigeria and the present state of public/civil service in

the country. A background of the concepts of public sector administration, leadership

theories/styles, leadership and leadership effectiveness, the Nigerian public sector, and its

problems and challenges, and the challenges of leadership effectiveness on public service

administration will be discussed. I explained the problem, purpose of the study which

was to explore how public sector leaders could enhance their service delivery by

exploring theories to enhance effectiveness.

Subsequently I outlined the research questions and objectives of the study. The

significance of the study which is advocacy for change in the manner which public sector

administration in Nigeria is managed and to improve service delivery, was highlighted.

The implications for social change was discussed well as the scope; and finally define

terms and concepts which will assist in the better understanding of the project. It

explained the nature of study, limitations and assumptions.

Chapter 2 was a review of current literature that relates to the study and its

relevance. It expounded on the theoretical foundations of the study, looking at the origins

of these theories or their source. The study was underpinned by leadership theories and so

I explored leadership theories/style with special focus on strategic leadership theory, in

relation to leadership effectiveness in Nigeria public sector administration. I also

explored strategic leadership and it suitability to serve as a leadership alternative for

Nigeria’s public sector administration. Other related issues and concepts with respect to

33

the topic under study were addressed. I attempted to link all these issues, concepts and

literatures together in order to critically evaluate leadership effectiveness through the lens

of leadership theories, as it contributes to leadership of the Nigerian public sector. The

chapter also explained the search strategies and databases employed during the research.

In Chapter 3, I discussed the study’s research methodology. The research applied

the qualitative research design, utilizing the phenomenological methodology to

understand the concept of leadership effectiveness, taking into consideration their pivotal

role in the administration of the Nigerian public sector. It outlined the population

identification and sampling process used to explore the topic. My role as the researcher

was explained highlighting the efforts made at ensuring trustworthiness of findings. Data

procedures in respect of data gathering procedures, storage and security measures, data

analysis and interpretation taken was explained. The chapter also addressed ethical

issues & procedures, issues of trustworthiness in terms of confirmability, dependability,

credibility and transferability. This culminated in seeking the internal review board

approval of Walden University.

Chapter 4 explained the settings and preparation for the data collecting and

highlighted other issues that might affect the interpretation of participants’ responses. I

illuminated the data collection process in detail, identifying the demographics of

participants and clarifying the analytical techniques used. I presented and analyzed

relevant data collected through interviews that aided the research efforts. I attempted to

address each research objective and research questions from the data analysis. I noted the

infractions observed during data collection and analysis. I also provided the evidence of

34

trustworthiness by showing the confirmability, dependability, transferability and

credibility of the study.

Chapter 5 concludes the research work with the interpretation of findings,

outlining the deductions from data analysis in Chapter 4. I stated my understanding of

the findings based on the information from data collected. I did this by grouping it into

subheadings – leadership effectiveness, meritocracy, blame avoidance behavior among

others. I stated the limitations that were encountered in the course of the study. I

reiterated the gap that led to the research and the implications/opportunities for positive

social change. I suggested recommendations for progress in the Nigerian public sector

administrators, and other key stakeholders. I also offered submissions for further studies

by future researchers. I finally concluded by discussing the impact of the research on both

I and the participants.

35

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

The public sector is the bedrock of government activities, owned and controlled

by the government to act in the interest of the general public and the law by providing

adequate services for all (Uche, Oghojafor & Akaighe, 2016). The management of the

public sector determines how effective government will be in policy implementation,

service delivery and overall governance (Murtala & Marshall, 2015). This is considering

that the services provided by public service organizations significantly influence the

quality of living standards and circumstances of the populace (Dvorak 2013). Effective

leadership plays a fundamental role in public sector administration (Olowookere &

Elegbeleye, 2013), noting that it is the major determinant of the success or failure of any

organizational activities. The Nigerian Public sector is mandated to deliver essential

services to the general public by effectively utilizing financial resources provided by the

government (Solaja & Ogunola, 2016).

According to Uche, Oghojafor & Akaighe (2016), Public servants are expected to

be effective and efficient but over the years, they have been unable to maximize these

resources – human & financial – towards the provision of adequate services and support

economic growth. Offiong, Atsu, Ajaude, & Ibor, (2016) found that in the face of the

economic uncertainties, there is need to enhance effectiveness in use of resources by

government organizations. Sorunke, Omojola & Adeleke (2016) opines that public

sector officials have displayed inefficiency and crass mismanagement of resources which

has turned public institutions into a den of corruption. Other researchers have narrowed

36

the problems and challenges of public service administration in Nigeria to ineffective

leadership (Adanri, 2016; Mora & Ţiclău 2012; Ogbeide, 2012).

Leadership is critical for administrative effectiveness in the public sector, as it is

the fundamental component for managerial direction to bring about institutional

coherence towards the achievement of a mission (Ukeje, Abraham & Chinyere, 2015).

Organizational productivity and effectiveness, irrespective of the situation will always be

dependent on leadership as it is a fundamental success factor for any institution (Wilson,

2016; Iheduru, 2016).

Thus the purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was an attempt to

understand how leadership ineffectiveness could be addressed in public sector

administration in Nigeria and to also consider the implication of adopting a strategic

leadership approach as an option for public sector administration in Nigeria. Hoffman &

lord (2013) notes that there is a need to understand what leaders do to increase their

effectiveness. Therefore this study was theoretically grounded in leadership theories as

this chapter will review various literatures by experts on leadership theories/styles and

public sector administration as it relates to the Nigerian economy, its structure,

challenges, and functions. The chapter explained the literature review search strategies

that I employed during the study. The theoretical foundation was analyzed in four parts.

Leadership, leadership theories/style, strategic leadership and strategic leadership in the

Nigerian public sector administration.

37

Literature Search Strategy

The literature search strategy was mostly electronically done. In researching for

this work, the underlisted databases and search engines were employed.

- Google Scholar

- Dissertation and Thesis at Walden University

- Google

- Research Gate

- Journal of Public Administration

- Journal of Social Sciences

- Nigerian Newspapers

- Ebsco Host Research Databases

- Public Administration Abstracts

- Global Journal of Politics and Law Research

- Journal of Phenomenological Psychology

- Sage Journals

- The Leadership Quarterly

The key search words that were used are public administration, Nigerian

leadership, Nigerian public service, corruption, phenomenology, leadership theories,

qualitative research, ethics, strategic leadership, trustworthiness, strategy, personalization

of public services, values, decision making, Nigerian economic growth, policy, economic

growth, government, public sector.

38

Theoretical Foundations

This study was primarily underpinned by strategic leadership theory, but would

explore other leadership theories taking into cognizance that I was particularly interested

in leadership effectiveness in public sector administration. Meuser, Gardner, Dinh, Hu,

Liden, & Lord (2016) defines theories as a methodical framework for the understanding

of a phenomenon. Thus leadership theories were the frameworks used to identify the

essence of leadership, what makes leaders to excel, how they evaluate options and make

decisions.

The broad classification of leadership theories included trait, behavioral,

contingency and the new leadership function theories (Singh, 2015). Conversely,

leadership styles are defined by experts to explain how the traits and behaviors of leaders

enable them function successfully under specific circumstances (Duggan, 2016). The

constant evolution of leadership theories is a testament to the fact that no particular

leadership style is applicable to all situations and that effective leadership is not dictated

by a particular theory (Yang & Lim, 2016).

Leadership

Through the years, studies on leadership have undergone stages of

metamorphosis, reinvention and amalgamations. McCleskey (2014) posits that a

fundamental element of these theories is that it believes that leaders are individuals with

extraordinary characteristics. This has resulted in many variations in the definition of

leadership and the birthing of numerous leadership theories. Leadership implies that there

is person within a group with a different, often preeminent status, authority and

39

responsibility (Chemers, 2014). Another definition states that leadership is a process by

which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization

in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent (Sharma & Silpa, 2013). This

researcher favors the definition by Spisak, O'Brien, Nicholson, & Van Vugt, (2015)

which states that leadership is the emergence of a focal individual who influences and

coordinates followers towards solving issues arising from social challenges experienced

in a vibrant and cultural environment.

Leadership is a group effort that involves inspiring, motivating and influencing

towards a vision, direction or goal (John & Chattopadhyay, 2015). Researchers agree that

there are distinctive commonalities to leadership definitions that is generally established

and accepted by all which is that leadership requires a group of followers, is based on the

ability to influence and the ability to utilizes resources in accomplishing goals (Wilson,

2016; Meuser et al, 2016; Gonzales, 2016; Breevart, 2015; Ehrhart, 2015; Dinh et al,

2014; Chemers, 2014; Goethals et al, 2014; Burke, 2011, Bass, 1990). Leadership has

been an integral part of humanity since the beginning of civilization (Coggins, 2016). I

could summarize all the definitions of leadership to one simple statement, Leadership is

meant to influence reality positively.

There is a fluidity to the leadership phenomenon as leadership behavior is

believed to fluctuate within individuals on a daily and situational basis (Breevaart,

Bakker, Demerouti, & Derks, 2015). The basic form of leadership exists where two

individuals interact under different scenarios which give rise to the need for hierarchy. As

40

opined by Horne (2012), without hierarchy is anarchy, this means that without leaders to

give guidance and directions, there will be chaos in an environment.

In Nigeria, leadership especially in public sector has been under constant scrutiny

because of governments’ inability to provide adequate infrastructure and social amenities.

Felix, Ahmad & Arshad, (2016) states that Nigeria’s public sector administration which

is the Government’s tool for policy and program implementation, is weighted down with

leadership failure and leadership crisis. Other issues as Iheduru (2016) notes, is that there

is a misconception of leadership in Nigeria, stating that it is often mistaken for rulership,

forsaking the social interaction aspect of leadership hence the gap between the leading

and the led.

The 21st century has seen an evolution of leadership theories and models

propagated by different philosophers based on the analysis of leadership styles portrayed

by great leaders at a particular time through history. Meuser et al, (2016) found that

between 2000 -2014, sixty six theories have been identified which relates to leadership.

This is against the backdrop of the ever increasing need for direction in a dynamic social

environment. This dissertation chapter will expound on the various leadership theories

and styles to underpin the area of study, with special emphasis on Strategic leadership.

Leadership style & theories

Meuser et al (2016) defines theory as a way of understanding a phenomena. In

this study we explore leadership theories/styles in relation to leadership effectiveness.

The ultimate charge of leaders is to achieve a predetermined goal through employee

motivation and utilization of resources. Leadership has a direct consequence on the

41

effectiveness and success of an organization (). The distinctive manner or personal skill

with which they provide direction, implement plans, inspire and motivate people towards

achieving the goals of the institution, is their style (John & Chattopadhyay, 2015; Ukeje,

et al, 2015; Caillier, 2014). Theories of leadership evolved from a need to understand the

processes, reactions, perceptions of leaders (Dinh et al, 2014).

Leadership theories date back to the great man theory which was the first

formulated in the 1840s. The name originated from a result of analysis of great men who

shaped history and the era where most successful businesses where run by men. It

believed in the school of thought that leadership is inheritable, especially from upper

class citizens or aristocrats (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 2014), that some people are leaders by

the fact of their birth (Yang & Lim, 2016; Jiang, 2014). The theory asserts that leaders

are born and not made. A typical example will be the monarchy of England which is

ruled by the queen as a result of succession of the royal lineage. In cases like this, a

person is expected to be the leader based on the fact he is born into the ruling family,

irrespective of competence or democracy. Examples of such leaders include Sir Winston

Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Napoleon Hill Bonaparte, Alexander the great, Mao Zedong,

Julius Caesar and businessmen like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie among others.

The common outstanding characteristic of these leaders is that they greatly

influenced the events of their time and the effect is still felt today; they shaped history.

Most times, these leaders came from aristocratic families making early philosophers to

conclude that leaders are born. Most of the leaders examined were male hence the name -

42

the Great Man Theory. Karl Marx and a host of 20th century behavioral psychologists in

their work have discredited the great man notion (Turak, 2013).

Democracy in the Nigerian system has rendered the great man theory

antediluvian. This is due to the institutionalization of the tenets of democracy such as

separation of powers into three arms of government – the executive, the legislative and

the judiciary, egalitarianism, individualism, libertarianism and the basics of liberal

democracy where credible electoral process involves politicking, campaign for votes and

elections that lead to the selection of leadership (Suleiman, 2016; Moran & Parry, 2015).

The great man theory is underpinned by autocracy where a sense of entitlement,

control, sole decision making, and followers’ unquestioned obedience, played an

important role. These attributes do not necessarily guarantee leadership effectiveness. It

is important to point out that leadership effectiveness is not inherited, it is a decision and

a commitment to be productive reinforced by constant training, learning and skill

acquisition.

Table 1.

Summary of Leadership Theories & Style

SN Theory Concept Leadership Style Era

1. Great Man Leaders are born not made Autocratic Pre 1990s

2. Trait There are inborn traits that

outstanding leader possess

Autocratic

Challenging

1930s

1940s

3. Competency Skill identification

Engaging

Involving

1930s –

1940s

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Coal-oriented

4. Behavioral Required skills for leadership

can be learned

Laissez-fair

Democratic

Autocratic

Bureaucrat

1940s –

1960s

5. Contingency Also known as situational

Leadership, it effectiveness

varies according to situation

Directive

Supportive

Participative

Achievement-

oriented

1960s

6. Servant Emphasizes on the legal and

ethical aspects of operations.

Pressure on the leader for

personal growth and authentic

living.

Engaging

Coercive

1970s

7. Charismatic /

Transformational

Influencing followers with

personality & charm.

Transactional

Transformational

Laissez-fair

1980s- till

date

8. Strategic Amalgamation of different

theories to provide a holistic

approach to leadership.

Transformational

Transactional

Situational

2000s

44

Visionary

Democratic

Associative

Pacesetting

Commanding

Note: Adapted from Jiang 2014, American Journal of Trade and Policy, Vol1, Issue 1

Trait Theory

This theory is credited to Thomas Carlyle through his works in 1840s, assessing

the degree to which natural abilities were inheritable. In a bid to understand the

characteristic attributes that distinguishes leaders from non-leaders, the trait theory was

hypothesized (Derue, Nahrgang, Wellman & Humphrey, 2011). It is of the opinion of

Gonzales (2016) that personal character is a major influencer of leadership style and this

links leadership style to personal trait.

The Trait Theory postulated that certain characteristic traits and attributes are

essential to leadership and explores which personal trait activates leadership effectiveness

(Ibukun, Oyewole, & Abe, 2011). It argues that a leaders’ personal traits is crucial to

success and goal accomplishment. However, there are no universal traits that are capable

of defining leadership in all conditions nor the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of

leadership based on traits.

Contingency/Situational Theory

Situational which is also known as contingency believes that leadership behavior

is dependent on the situation. McCleskey (2014) defines this theory as a task oriented

45

model that assesses a situation properly before ant action is taken. Unlike the behavioral

and trait theories that ignore the situation the leader is in, the key feature of this theory is

the environment the leader operates is instructive of his action.

McCleskey (2014) asserts that situational leadership has to contend with issues of

continuity, conformity, ambiguity and internal consistency. According to Ibukun,

Oyewole, & Abe, (2011), the effectiveness of leadership may be adequate within one

situational perspective but will be ineffective in another.

Behavioral Theory of Leadership

This model was theorized during the Post-World War II period of the 1940s to

1960s.The defining element was that leadership could be learned. It believes that

leadership is not based on internal traits or qualities but the particular behavior that I

employed to lead employees to achieve a goal (Ibukun, Oyewole, & Abe, 2011). The

theory emphasizes on the effectiveness of the leader based on behavior, not on trait nor

situation. In essence, leaders are made and not born. The theory argues that behaviors of

effective leaders could be isolated and understood to train others to be effective leaders

too.

Today, leadership theorists have identified additional behavioral leadership styles

that may potentially influence organizational performance on several dimensions. Among

these are the authentic leadership approach and servant, spiritual, ethical, moral,

responsible, and entrepreneurial styles. Authentic, servant and responsible leadership

styles are now keenly followed (Carter & Greer, 2014).

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Responsible leadership places emphasis on organization triple bottom-line

outcomes-corporate social responsibility and environmental care. Responsible leadership

draws on discourse ethics theory and views leadership as a leader–stakeholder

interaction. Moreover, it does not view leadership effectiveness in terms of financial

performance as a driver of leadership behavior, but rather as directed toward gaining

legitimate solutions for all affected parties .It transcends culturally specific views on

ethical leaders (Voegtlin, 2012).

Authentic leadership has four dimensions: self-awareness, relational

transparency, internalized moral perspective, and balanced processing (Avolio, 2009). It

originated as an answer to issues of confidence in leadership (Banks, McCauley, Gardner,

& Guler, 2016). This style has been censured for its overlapping attributes as it integrates

transformational, charismatic, spiritual, servant, ethical and other leadership styles.

Authentic leadership shows positive organizational performance in intermediate

outcomes (Leroy, 2015).

Ethical Leadership style is where the leader virtues are ethically sound. In this

regard, such a leader display intentions, values and behaviors that are respectful and

mean no harm to others. This kind of leadership is widely expected among healthcare

leaders as if ignored or followed it has the greatest impact on the primary role of

healthcare. There is usually a positive improvement in patient outcomes and employee

motivation on the part of healthcare workers (Al-Sawai, 2013).

In servant leadership, the leader is at the forefront handling the needs of his or

her own followers. Thus the followers only take care of their needs later after the leader

47

has already handled the issues. The leader is basically a servant and not a ruler. To them

to rule is to offer service to the subjects. Examples of George Washington and Mahatma

Gandhi in history (Dems, 2015).

The various leadership theories and styles that have evolved over time have

proved that perhaps the best strategy is one that is adaptable to the various situations and

that it is worth considering how the various positive aspects of the different

theories/styles can work together hence the strategic leadership theory.

Transaction Theory

Transactional leadership style is also known as managerial leadership as it is

routine based. It entails achieving organizational goal by appealing to the interest of

employees in a contractual manner (Sajjadi, 2014). It involves supervision, organization

and group performance motivated by rewards or punishment as the case may be. The

power of the transactional leader comes from formal authority and responsibility in the

given organization (Nikezic, Puric, & Puric, 2012). It is not adaptable to organizational

change as it maintains the status quo, aiming to achieve organizational efficiency at all

times.

The model favors employees who are task and goal oriented. Thus the model

allows the managers to allow the employees fulfill their own self-interests. Transactional

leadership focuses on results, conforms to the existing structure of an organization and

measures success according to that organization’s system of rewards and penalties.

Transactional leaders have formal authority and positions of responsibility in an

organization (Sajjadi, 2014) where the relationship between the leader and follower

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revolves around the exchange of gratification aimed at maximizing gains for both

organization and individual (Spahr, 2015).

Transactional leadership however faces a number of criticisms. The outcomes are

usually short term and shallow as they are done on transaction by transaction basis. Its

rigidity in following the same approach to leadership ensures that situational

organizational challenges will prove difficult to solve (McClesky, 2014). Also team

loyalty, motivation and innovativeness is low to nonexistent here (Spahr, 2015). The

justification for transactional leadership is simple, followers who perform their

obligations to specification get rewarded as it is simply a give and take relationship

(Carter & Greer, 2014).

Transformational Theory

Transformational leadership theory has been the most studied, debated and most

influential leadership theory in the past 30 years (Berkovich, 2016; Dinh et al, 2014;

McCleskey, 2014). A transformational leader is one who raises the level of consciousness

of his followers about the importance and value of outcome and the methods of reaching

those outcomes (Burns, 1978). A transformational leader uses his charisma to coach,

mentor, challenge and support followers to transcend their own self-interests for that of

the organization (Berkovich, 2016; Bass 2008).

Transformational leadership is underpinned by on four components - idealized

influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized

consideration (McClesky, 2014). These components ensure that the followers are

impressed by their leaders as he exemplifies their idea of leadership by inspiring and

49

motivating them to push the boundaries and face challenges. The flow of ideas between

leader and followers ensures that there is intellectual stimulation, through the

receptiveness of the leader to criticism which opens up a flow of innovative ideas.

Transformational leader encourages interaction with followers at a personal level, all in a

bid to steer an organization to new horizons (Schaubroeck, Lam, & Peng, 2016;

McCleskey, 2014; Van Knippenberg, & Sitkin, 2013).

The ultimate goal of transformational leadership is to positively impact on

followers by helping them internalize organizational values and organizational

performance through improved staff performance (Phaneuf, Boudrias, Rousseau, &

Brunelle, 2016; Schaubroeck, Lam, & Peng, 2016). Transformational leadership fits a

wide array of cultures, situations and contexts. However, the suitability of

transformational leadership depends on contexts. In as much as generally deemed

successful, there is a growing need for research on the relation between transformational

leadership and work outcomes (McCleskey, 2014).

Some critics of transformational leadership state that there are no clear

indications/fundamental models of the effects on this theory on organizational outcomes

(Van Knippenberg & Sitkin, 2013). Transformational leadership has been interrelated

with leadership effectiveness but Berkovich (2016) argues that there is a degree of

ambiguity between the definition of transformational leadership and its effectiveness with

respect to idealized influence. Mills & Boardley (2017) contend that this approach is

incapable of advising daily operations. The impact of transformational leadership in the

public sector is being contested as scholars maintain that the organizational structure and

50

size of the public sector inhibits or even out rightly makes transformational leadership an

unethical venture (Felix, Ahmad & Arshad, 2016).

There is the predilection of transformational leaders to pursue assigned interest to

the detriment of collective interest (Soniyi & Akinwale, 2016). The fact that

transformational leaders pressure their followers opens up opportunities for abuse of

power and the rise of pseudo transformational leadership where a leader is more orally

inclined that exemplifying leadership (Camm, 2016).

Charismatic Leadership

Charismatic leadership is through charm, communication abilities and

persuasiveness. Charismatic leaders are driven by their conviction and commitment to a

cause. There are similarities with transformational leadership but for audience and focus.

Charismatic leaders often try to make the status quo better sometimes exhibiting elements

of self-sacrifice and heroism while transformational leaders focus on transforming

organizations into the leader’s vision (Spahr, 2016). As earlier noted in the

transformational theory, the use of coercive power by charismatic leaders can pose

significant risks for psychological damage in organizations (Camm 2016).

Strategic Leadership

Strategic leadership refers to a leaders’ ability to “anticipate, envision, maintain

flexibility, think strategically, and work with others to initiate changes” (Meuser et al,

2016). Strategic leaderships has the potential to be a solution to recurrent leadership

problems as it is as an amalgamation of various leadership styles, about 20 leadership

theories according to Meuser et al, (2016). The development of leadership theories needs

51

to progress to the level of integration to advance the practice and study of leadership

(Hollenbeck, DeRue, & Nahrgang, 2015). Strategic Leadership explicitly outlines the

motive and the purpose of a goal, thereby guiding an inclusive process to set a new

strategy in place (Joyce, 2012). It thrives on the flexibility to switch between styles based

on existing conditionalities and environment.

Strategic leadership is about multi-functionality, striving to understand and align

the external with the internal environment (Simsek, Jansen, Minichilli, & Escriba‐Esteve,

2015). It appreciates that different situations demand different types of intelligence to

execute hence the flexibility to adapt to a required course of action. It understands the

importance of organizational culture to the success and long-term viability of the

organization. Strategic leadership is value addition to high performance where the

operative element is strategy. Strategic leadership employs critical thinking for problem

solving.

As noted by Stowell & Mead (2016), leadership requires more than operational

effectiveness, or completion of daily/existing responsibilities, it is about effective

execution of present responsibilities while developing a visionary outlook that will shape

a better future. Strategic leadership is the ability to effectively combine the best attributes

of the visionary approach with the managerial leadership styles while tapping into their

emotional and strategic competency (Jiang, 2014).

It balances the short term needs of the organization with the longer term strategic

opportunities that may become available. They integrate the vision, creativity and

innovation necessary for long term success with the operational focus and understanding

52

that maintains organizational stability. Above all, the strategic leadership is able to

connect with the people around them and has strong performance expectations

(Redmond, 2015). It is about leading through inspiration and persuasion rather than by

coercion (Bass, 2006).

There is a managerial aspect to every leadership style and it focuses on the day-to-

day and operational side of the business. Overtime they build an in-depth understanding

of their measure of the business. In this capacity, they are the implementers of

procedures, policies and budgets instead of giving the vision. Their interaction with

employees in this capacity is in a formal manner concentrating on the task at hand and

not the person doing it. According to Hoskisson et al (2004), Strategic Leadership is the

managerial ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, and empower others to

create strategic change as necessary. Effective strategic leadership shapes the

formulation of strategic mission and intent while at the same time influencing successful

strategic actions namely formulation and implementation of strategies that too bring

strategic competitiveness and better results.

Rowe (2001) defines strategic leadership as the ability to influence others to

voluntarily make day to day decisions that enhance the long-term viability of the

organization while maintaining its short term financial stability (Slawinski). Key strategic

leadership actions include determining strategic direction. This means that a clear vision

of where the organization will be within a specified period and specific targets outlined.

Strategic leadership focuses on activating and implementing core competencies in terms

of resources and capabilities of an organization. It also entails developing human capital

53

through training and other forms of capacity building of employees while sustaining

organizational culture.

The operative element for strategic leadership is the ability to utilize strategy in

all decision making and implementation of plans. Strategy is defined as the pattern of

choices intended to assure an organization’s enduring success. Strategic leadership is

about transforming an organization through its vision and values, culture and climate, and

structure and systems. Strategic leadership requires continuous self-development to

enhance a leaders’ ability to anticipate opportunities & threats to their organization. It

should be able to challenge the status quo, explore differing views, interpret the

information, decipher ambiguous data, decide, align, and learn (Schoemaker, Krupp, &

Howland, 2013).

Strategic leadership has a central role in evolution and cultivating an

organization’s philosophy. This theory of leadership prepares an organization to better

respond to future trends (Abdow, 2015).The private sector has benefited from strategic

leadership as it is practiced by the private sector CEOs and their top management teams,

the board of directors and other heads of business units (Boal & Hoojiberg 2012).

There is a synergy between leadership effectiveness in the public sector and

strategic leadership. Joyce (2016) summarizes the key characteristics of effective leaders

and they are: knowledge of the situation and how to lead the people, self- confidence,

building alliances, coalitions and trust among followers, constant personal development,

understanding and managing stakeholders and lastly, challenging people to change.

These characteristics align with that of strategic leadership approach. Backoff & Nutt

54

(1993) posits that strategic leadership focuses on creating an enabling environment for

growth development which encourages personnel commitment and a sense of ownership

inspired by trust and reciprocity. All these work towards idea implementation and

strategic productivity.

Strategic Leadership in Nigerian Public Sector Administration

The intention of this research was to seek an alternative solution to leadership

effectiveness issues in the Nigerian public sector administration, considering that they are

service providing agencies for the public. Hassan & Lituchy (2017) posits that the

predominant leadership styles in Nigeria are the charismatic, team and humane

orientation. This study is exploring strategic leadership as the alternative style to enhance

effectiveness in the leadership and by extension service delivery of public sector

administration in Nigeria. Wang, Waldman & Zhang (2012) posits that strategic

leadership focuses on effective, efficiency and stakeholder needs, hence the need to

consider it as an option to enhance leadership effectiveness in Nigeria’s public sector

administration.

Schutte & Barkhuizen (2015) analyzed the core competencies of strategic

leadership which include affective, cognitive and psychomotor competencies and found

that public sector leaders need improvement in all these areas. These three competencies

encompass the ability to communicate flexibly, to be analytical, perceptive, promote

inclusion, comprehend and implement strategies, be adaptable and to be an originator.

Backoff & Nutt (1993) states that a strategic leadership strives to provide effective

guidance, mobilize and inspire people to create change which has permanent value. An

55

important aspect of strategic leadership is the element of sustainability and long term

vision/planning of leaders. This element is also important in public sector administration

seeing as government is a going concern.

Vart (2003) points out that public sector administration requires an integrative and

all-inclusive leadership model for higher productivity and service delivery in the face of

the global economic situation. According to Omoyibo, (2012), Nigeria needs to tackle

their dysfunctional economic system by creating and implementing an institutional

framework of polices. These policies when created, will be implanted by the public sector

hence the need for leadership effectiveness in this sector which is critical for national &

economic development.

As noted by (2016), public administration is concerned with turning government

policies into effective actions in reality, thus the obligation falls on public sector

administrators to close the gap between government objectives and policy

implementation/achievement. Bennis (1994) noted that the major problem of public

sector leadership is that they impose rather than inspire follower, bringing about bosses

instead of leaders. There is a need to incorporate management and democracy in public

sector administration (Box, 2015).

In Nigeria, Leadership, especially in the public sector, is driven by individualism

which has allowed personality traits, culture and ethnicity to play a role in the

(mis)management of the public sector culminating in poor service delivery and low

productivity in the sector. Solaja & Ogunola (2016) opines that Nigerian public sector

leadership needs to institutionalize one of the fundamental traits of leadership and that is

56

to forego personal interest for collective, national interest. Akindele, Olaopa & Obiyan

(2002) theorizes that the quality of the Nigerian public administration was reduced by

persisting issues ranging from conflict of interest, inability to be politically neutral,

bureaucracy, quota system and federal character.

More reasons why individualism is on the rise as asserted by Chemers (2014), is

that prominence and financial reward are ultimate benefits of leadership making it a

coveted position to attain. This encourages people to bend the rules in a bid to get there as

attaining leadership position becomes the goal and not the opportunity to serve as

preconceived. Acknowledging that corruption and the personalization of public offices

are some consequences of leadership ineffectiveness which has led to the

institutionalization of unproductivity and inadequate service delivery in public service

administration, it is imperative that leadership in public sector administration is

reassessed and re-energized to change the current situation.

Adanri & Thakkar (2016) found that there is a correlation between leadership

style and leadership effectiveness. Wart (2003) states that effective leadership sets in

place a system to deliver superior quality of goods and services more efficiently by

aligning vision and direction with environmental forces while creating an atmosphere for

creativity and innovation to thrive. Effective leadership takes personal development and

organizational culture into consideration for a sustainable system to succeed. Thus, there

is a need for democratic strategy in the leadership and administration of the public sector

specifically for a country that is constantly divided by its diversity in the people, ethnicity

and religion.

57

Ejimabo (2013) recommended that Nigerian leaders need a comprehensive

leadership style that will include the understanding of varied tradition, customs, language

of the people to be effective in governance. It is imperative that a leader take

responsibility and ownership of decisions and actions taken. To put it succinctly,

Nigerian leaders have to acquire holistic & sustainable problem solving skills. For

leadership to be effective in Nigeria, it should employ strategies to achieve set goals

irrespective of familial, political and religious affiliations. The positivity of results in the

public sector will be enhanced if time and efforts are dedicated to analyzing the internal

and external environments to develop and evaluate strategic options for leadership

implementation (Elbanna, Andrews, & Pollanen, 2016).

Schutte & Barkhuizen (2015) theorizes that public service institutions need skilled

and competent leaders to be sustainable. Solaja & Ogunola (2016) opines that the success

of leadership depends on the ability to use a range of skills and the flexibility navigate

between leadership styles as warranted by different situations. Strategic leadership

understands that motivation is the key to productivity, job performance and personal

satisfaction. (Yang & Lim, 2016). It employs effective problem solving using critical

thinking to orchestrate a deliberate and inclusive decision making process irrespective of

hierarchy that would produce superior results (Iheduru, 2016; Fung & Wright, 2003).

Leaders with social skills also known as social and emotional intelligence go a long way,

Strategic leadership is going a step further from transformational leadership. Strategic

leadership in the Nigerian public sector should integrate public and private roles

58

harmoniously where your private life enhances and compliments the public aspect

(Bennis, 1994)

In exploring strategic leadership in relation to the Nigerian public sector, one

needs to look at the profile of public sector leaders in Nigeria. Uche, Oghojafor &

Akaighe, (2016) asserts that most leaders who head public sector organizations are

politically appointed and unqualified to lead their organizations. According to Okonjo-

Iweala (2012), the recruitment of public servants in Nigeria was mostly political or

reward based neglecting a merit/skilled based practice and this has resulted in redundancy

and an under-skilled workforce with employees lacking the prerequisite expertise for

their jobs. Some of these personnel go on to become inept leaders.

Iheduru (2016) upholds this argument by noting that the leadership crisis in

Nigeria is the outcome of inadequate preparation preceding the appointment, on the part

of those who find themselves in leadership positions. Royce (2012) theorizes that a

leaders profile should include his focus on delivery of results and his vision/plan for

future continuity. Hassan & Lituchy (2017) is of the opinion that for leadership

effectiveness in Nigeria, one should be well educated, knowledgeable, honest,

trustworthy, fair in all manners, persevering and sociable in nature.

Summary

In this chapter, I attempted to define leadership in relation to the Nigerian public

service. The theories of leadership which underpins the study were explored. These

theories include great man theory, trait theory, contingency theory, visionary theory,

transactional theory, transformational theory and strategic leadership theories. Taking

59

into consideration, that I was exploring strategic leadership as an alternative option for

leadership effectiveness to be achieved in the Nigerian public sector administration, I

examined the workability of applying this theory to public sector administration by

matching strategic leadership traits to public sector leaders.

I endeavored to fill the literature gap on strategic leadership in the Nigerian public

sector administration, highlighting the benefits of the theory to effective leadership.

Transitional Statement

In Chapter 3, I discussed the research design, method and methodology that will

be used to gather data to explore the research questions. I had explored various designs

under the qualitative method namely the ethnography and narrative designs, in a bid to

utilize the best fit. I found that trying to explore the phenomenon of leadership required a

method that would capture the essence of the experiences of participants and so I decided

on the phenomenological method. I detailed the procedures that I would employ for data

collection in this study. It was important that I discussed the population under study,

sample size, sample selection process which includes the sample selection criteria,

instrumentation. The processes employed in the data analysis method was also explained.

60

Chapter 3: Research Method

Introduction

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was an attempt to identify

how leadership ineffectiveness could be addressed in public sector administration in

Nigeria. Ukeje, Abraham & Chinyere (2015) postulates that administrative effectives and

the degree of goal achievements are testaments to effective leadership. I considered the

implication of adopting a strategic leadership approach as an option for public sector

administration in Nigeria. This I did by exploring leadership approaches that currently

exists in the Nigerian public service administration with a view to proffering solutions or

an alternative approach to the leadership challenges. This would enhance the Nigerian

public sector efficiency and optimize service delivery.

This chapter focused on the research methodology, method and motivation for the

aforementioned. I provided an understanding of procedures employed while conducting

the research project. I explained my role as the researcher. In explaining my role in this

chapter, I iterated my commitment to objectivity by stating any bias and the ways that I

would mitigate the effect of bias on the outcome of the research. It further addresses the

ethical issues applicable to the study and discusses the steps taken to ensure the

confidentiality of research participants.

To carry out the research, it was important that the methodology be situated in an

interpretive paradigm to understand the phenomenon. Research methodology refers to the

set of procedures employed during the execution of a research study. It is a systematic

process and procedural scheme upon which a research is based and against which claims

61

and assumptions are evaluated, proven in favour or against prior assumptions. The issues

explained herein includes research design, area of study, the sample frames, sampling

techniques, instruments used and their validations, procedure for data collection, and data

analysis information. It described the choice of research population and identified the

sampling strategy as well as justified the participants’ selection process.

Furthermore, the chapter illustrated the data collection procedure and specifically

the collection method and its suitability for the research. Strategies to ensure

trustworthiness – credibility, dependability, reliability, transferability – was stated. The

ethical procedure which included the initial approach to participants to get their consent

to contribute to data gathering and all ethical concerns related to researcher bias, data

handling, participant’s anonymity and conflict of interest was addressed in this chapter.

The research was conducted using a hermeneutic phenomenological research

method under qualitative design because of the nature of the research project with its

stated objectives. To appreciate hermeneutic phenomenology, one has to understand the

concept of phenomenology. Phenomenology is both a philosophical and psychological

doctrine, a far-reaching form of epistemology proffered in the 20th century by the

German philosopher, Edmund Husserl (1859-1938).

Edmund Husserl’s investigation into phenomenology which is also referred to as

Transcendental or Husserlian Phenomenology became the foundation on which other

researchers based their exploration. It is worth-noting that though Edmund Husserl is

ascribed the title of father of Phenomenology, it was used by Immanuel Kant (1724-

62

1804) in his book “Critique of Pure Reason” while researching the mental representation

of experience (Padilla-Díaz, 2015).

Phenomenology was explained by Friesen, Henriksson & Saevi 2012) as the study

of the nature and meaning of a phenomena, focusing on people’s perception of their

environment. Subsequently, other authors have added to the understanding of the

knowledge of phenomenology as a philosophical undertaking which utilizes a different

progressive approach to study of human lived experiences.

Hermeneutic phenomenology is another strain of phenomenology posed by a

student of Husserl’s, Martin Heidregger (1889-1976). He is of the view that human

experience is subjective and as such an appreciation of the world should come from the

interpretation of individual experiences as understood by them. Hermeneutic

phenomenology does not restrict a researcher to the right way of doing of

phenomenological research, it frees a researcher to reach hidden depths that will produce

valuable contextual data in a study to stimulate further thinking (Crowther, Ironside,

Spence, & Smythe, 2016). Hermeneutic phenomenology searches deeper, looking

beyond the general interpretation of lived experiences to the cultural, societal and

historical underpinnings of the meanings of the experiences (Fernandez, 2016; Del Pilar

Plazas, Cameron & Salas 2016).

Generally, phenomenology is individualistic in nature because it delves into a

person's perception and understanding of the implication of an event, as opposed to the

broad event externally. It could be defined as the acquiring a knowledge of the world as

conceptualized through peoples’ lived experiences. The phenomenological research

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method is therefore deemed appropriate in eliciting the participants’ reflections of their

lived experiences in relation to leadership in their various public organizations.

Research Design & Rationale

The research design constitutes the plan, structure and strategy for research

investigation conceived to obtain answers to research questions and to control variance

(Osuagwu, 2006). Research design provides the basic guidelines for the details of the

research study and it comprises a series of prior decisions that, taken together, provide a

master plan for executing a research study.

Research design served as a guide to the research process. It charts a researcher’s

course through data collection, collation, analysis and interpretation. It explained the

whom, the when, the what and the how the study was undertaken. The research design

determines the thoroughness, generalizability and validity of the outcome of the

exploration, this ties to the components of a research design.

Osuagwu (2006) defined research design as the programme that guided me through the

process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data and information. Research design

decides the generalizability of the findings from the exploration.

Research design includes the aims of the research, the final selection of the

appropriate methodology, the data collection that I intends to use, the chosen method of

data analysis and interpretation, and how all these fit in with the literature. Thus since the

qualitative techniques are themes/idea identification, I would utilize phenomenological

methodology for this research.

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The design I chose for this study is qualitative research design. Privitera (2017)

defines qualitative research as the use of non-statistical scientific analysis to draw

conclusions from nonnumeric observations. Patton (2016) earlier explains that qualitative

inquiry studies how things work with a view to understand how systems work and their

significances on people’s lives, hence illuminating meanings from perspectives and

experiences. This study attempts to understand public sector leadership effectiveness, its

consequences on the Nigerian State and the benefits (if any) of strategic leadership as an

alternative leadership style.

Thus, the choice of this research method was informed by the nature of study

which concerns the exploration of a social phenomenon to illuminate peoples’ behavior

and decisions (Tong & Craig, 2016). It was further informed by the questions that i asked

in the process of understanding the phenomenon of leadership effectiveness and its

consequences in public sector administration in Nigeria. The research questions are;

RQ1: What leadership approach currently exists in public sector administration

in Nigeria, with particular reference to Tertiary Education Trust Fund

(TETFund)?

RQ2: How does the leadership approach adopted by TETFund hinder/enhance

effective service delivery?

RQ3: How can the adoption of strategic leadership approach address the

challenges (if any) of TETFund?

To answer these questions, I reasoned that it was important to have direct contact

with people that have been in leadership positions or have worked under people in these

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positions taking into consideration the subjective interpretation of an experience by

different people. It is important to do a qualitative interpretive study because individual

perceptions or beliefs are unique and dependent on their construction of an action. It was

also imperative that I employ a method that is flexible, taking into cognizance that the

research would involve direct interaction with individuals in their distinctiveness.

This prompted the review of the methodologies that would aid in exploring the

patterns that would emerge from the understanding which actors ascribed to their lived

experiences. A persons’ reality and their adaptation to it, is steeped in their understanding

of happenings in their social sphere which dictates their behavior. Hollan (2012) noted

the importance of unfolding human experience to understand human conditions because

it goes further to dictate how it assumes its unique character and quality. It is within this

context that Yilmaz (2013) opined that reality is neither static nor fixed but rather

subjective realities exist in a social constructs. Thus, the research design should be one

that would capture the essence of the subjective construal of a persons’ understanding of

his everyday life.

Role of the Researcher

The qualitative study is being carried out utilizing a phenomenological

methodology. As indicated earlier, I decided to narrow down the study by utilizing the

case study approach for data collection. Utilizing the phenomenological methodology as

a framework and the case study method for data gathering purposes dictated that I

employed face-to-face interview with participants as a primary source of data collection.

Consequently, I would say that my role as the researcher included being a

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facilitator, in the sense that I was putting the whole research process together. I

encouraged participants to express themselves comfortably, while ensuring that there is

no direct or indirect coercion of participants towards an understanding of leadership

effectiveness. I had to manage myself during interviews, especially potential emotional

reactions during relational circumstances and also alternate between being an active

listener and a helping voice to encourage dialogue (Gubrium, Holstein, Marvasti &

Mckinney, 2012). I was a learner as the entire process of exploring the phenomenon is to

gain insight into the mechanisms of public sector decision making.

I had to peruse a number of research designs and methodology to determine that

which was the most appropriate for the study. An important role that I played throughout

this process was that of self-motivator, because there was the need to be committed to

expending the time and effort required to exhaustively explore all data sources for the

study, committed to data collection, member checking and analysis. The research

methodology demands extensive field study as interviews will require time and patience

taking into consideration that it is done at the participant’s convenience as well as

comfort zone.

Another role was that of reflection. I had to consider all the data gathered on the

lived experiences of the participants in relation to the topic under exploration. My role as

the researcher was interpretive as all aspects of the interview – body language, facial

expression are important to the data process and subject to interpretation. I was

personally unconnected to the phenomena under study and as such the data gathered will

be unrelated to me.

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Being able to distinguish between my person and the phenomena under study

guaranteed objectivity in the data gathering process. I had no assumptions regarding the

expected results of the interview but rather had to be circumspect as I worked through the

questions that arose from the examination of the meanings that were found in the

intangibles of human relations and behavior.

I also assumed the role of an enquirer as the interviewer during data gathering,

asking the questions that will produce the answers for the study. I also played the role of

data collector in the form of interviewer or observer as he goes about collecting the data,

aided by field notes taken during the interviews. It is essential to forge a relationship with

the participants for ease of the data collection process. I was the analyzer acknowledging

that any software utilized would ease the organizing, coding and categorizing but the

actual job of data analysis falls on me as the person who would assemble, describe,

interpret and analyze the observations of participants and their responses to the

interviews. Overall, I was the main instrument of research.

There is a need for the suspension or suppression of judgment during data

collection and analysis in qualitative research (Padilla-Diaz, 2015). Accordingly, I would

maintain objectivity in the face of exposure to the phenomena under study having worked

in both the private & public sector, is currently working in TETFund which is the public

organization that data will be gathered from and is also a partaker of services rendered by

the public sector. It is important to note that some researchers believe that total

objectivity is difficult in carrying out qualitative researchers (Chan, Fung, & Chien, 2013;

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Tufford & Newman, 2012). I had also played some informal and formal leadership roles

in the course of his career in both private and public sectors.

I ensured that upon conclusion of study there was sufficient evidence to support

any claims made, that there was lucidity and consistency to the data collected in relation

to analysis, interpretation and conclusions drawn from the above mentioned.

Methodology – Phenomenological Research

The methodology for this study was conceptualized within an interpretive

phenomenological research methodology. This was because it is important to use a

methodology that would appreciate the social and economic consequences of leadership

effectiveness from an individual’s perspective, especially since the study is interested in

understanding how and why a particular leadership approach is or should be adopted.

Phenomenology is a descriptive and interpretative reflection of the basic structures of the

lived experiences of human nature (Manen, 2014), and this speaks to its suitability.

Qualitative methodology refers to research that produces descriptive data through

peoples own written or spoken words and observable behavior (Taylor, Bogdan, &

DeVault, 2015). Various researchers have concluded independently that the qualitative

research methodology has definitive common features in that it is interpretive,

naturalistic, adaptable and exploratory (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011; Silverman, 2010;

Holoway & Wheeler, 2010; Flick 2009).

It is logical that this study which seeks to understand the perspective of people

about the social phenomenon of leadership effectiveness that directly affects them should

be done with a humanistic approach which would appreciate the participants view and the

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environment in which the experience unfolds. Phenomenology is a 20th-century

philosophical movement dedicated to describing the structures of experience as they

present themselves to consciousness, without recourse to theory, deduction, or

assumptions from other disciplines such as the natural sciences.

The concept of phenomenology has been widely researched birthing different

approaches to phenomenology which naturalistic, descriptive, constitutive, existential,

generative historicist, genetic phenomenology, hermeneutic and realistic phenomenology

(Chan, Fung & Chien, 2013). It is constantly evolving but nonetheless, through all the

arguments and refining, the key concepts remain the same, and it evaluates lived

experiences. Smith (2013) states that phenomenology basically studies the structure of

various types of experiences ranging from perception, thought, memory, imagination,

emotion, desire and volition to bodily awareness, embodied action and social activity,

including linguistic activity. This further buttress the fact that phenomenology is about

individual consciousness and a person’s appreciation of his consciousness of his

environment.

The objective of phenomenology is the direct investigation and description of

phenomena as consciously experienced, without theories about their causal explanations

or their objective reality. It therefore seeks to understand how the respondents construct

meaning to an experience, reaching into their self-awareness of these experiences. By

looking at multiple perspectives of the same situation, a researcher can start to make

some generalizable conclusion of what is from a supposedly insider perspective.

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The rationale for the choice of phenomenology as the research methodology are

as follows:

a) Smith D.W. (2013) states that phenomenology studies various types of experience

ranging from perceptions, thoughts, memories, imaginations, emotions, desires,

and volition to bodily awareness. I needed to explore leadership in public sector

administration in Nigeria with a view to understanding leadership ineffectiveness

and to further possibly proffer strategic leadership as an alternative leadership

approach. This was done by trying to understand the perceptions of the

experiences of selected participants, with leaders in public sector organizations, in

particular Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

b) The need to understand why public sector leaders make decisions in a certain

way, to know what determines their basis for decisions will be better achieved

through a phenomenological inquiry.

c) Phenomenology has an interpretive nature which will be used to explore the

delicate research problem about leadership ineffectiveness.

d) There is versatility to the phenomenological methodology as it has some aspects

of case study during primary data collection and narration involved in interpreting

primary data collected from a third person point of view.

e) Lived experiences are subjective to individual interpretation and as such requires

a methodology that will yield a deeper understanding of the situation under

exploration.

f) It focuses on the lived experiences of the people within the sample study.

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g) It strives to extract the contextual understanding of the subjective behavior of

people experiencing the same phenomenon from different perspectives.

h) It is a more personalized approach to data collection as it allows for face to face

interviews where intangibles like facial expression and body language counts, and

i) Phenomenology can be a vehicle to illuminate the central and important issues of

leadership in public sector management as the lived experiences of participants

will help understand leadership ineffectiveness in public sector administration in

Nigeria.

Human lives are a phenomenon in itself because we live with the constant

interpretation of our reality as it evolves and as such the distinctive difference of nature

determines how the phenomenon of life is lived. This ties in with the description of

phenomenology as an ontology of human existence (Chemero & Kaufer, 2015). They

further elucidate that it studies subjective experiences that make the shared objective

world intelligible. It is an approach used to decipher the core of the interpretations of

people’s experiences and it explores the manifestation of things or events. To buttress the

above, Creswell (2013) explains phenomenological study as an understanding of the

common meaning of a lived experience for several individuals.

A phenomenological approach studies the essence of experiences (Patton, 2012),

so the role of theory is based on social constructivism framework of the retrospective

reflection of daily experiences from our consciousness. It is structured on the first person

experience of a participants through the direct happenstance to the participant or by direct

observation of a phenomenon by me. There is a similarity between the

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phenomenological and narrative qualitative approaches. They both tap into peoples’

perceptions and lived experiences. Narrative approach to qualitative research takes the

knowledge of an experience and transforms it into a tale of said experience. In simpler

terms, a narrative study can be said to be an experience storied while a phenomenological

study is an understanding of a phenomenon arising from lived experiences. I believes that

the phenomenological methodology is the most effective approach to answering the

research questions on leadership in the Nigerian public sector administration as raised by

the study.

The rationale for adopting phenomenology as the research methodology is that it

studies the commonality of the behavior, language and interaction among several

individuals with regards to their lived experiences (Creswell, 2013). This suits the

subclass of public servants who will be participants in the study. Secondly, leadership is a

complex phenomenon as opined by Wright, Moynihan & Pandey (2012) which can be

better understood through a methodology that appreciates complexities.

Exploring the strategic leadership which is an emergent style requires interactions

with participants to explore the interpretations of their lived experiences with leaders and

this fits the phenomenological research. The research could have employed other

qualitative research methodologies such as grounded theory and ethnography but in the

opinion of I, the study will not be holistically investigated using the grounded theory or

ethnography. This is because Creswell (2013) rightly observes that grounded theory

requires a large group of participants to generate an explanation of a process or action

while ethnography explores a culture sharing group and their patterns. Ethnography also

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requires a larger number of participants as it explores cultural groups in a setting over an

extended period of time (Moon, Brewer, Januchowski-Hartley, Adams, & Blackman,

2016).

Kafle (2013) explains that phenomenology encompasses a range of research

approaches and Schwartz-Shea & Yanow (2013) explains that there is a distinction

between methodology and method, stating that methodology is about the reality

(Ontology) and know-ability (Epistemology) of the study and this informs the method

which are the particular tools employed in the exploration. Tong & Dew (2016) posits

that methodology is the guiding framework for the methods which a researcher employs

for data collection, sampling strategies and data analysis.

Case Study Method

Consequently, the specific method I used in my attempt to explore the phenomena

of effective leadership and the possible adoption of strategic leadership for public sector

administration organization was the case study approach. Yin (2013) states that case

studies are ideal for policy and public administration research and this supports the

suitability of the research strategy for this study. Pettigrew (2014) posits that case studies

highlights certain regularities of a social process. Case studies provide insights into a

phenomenon and these insights may likely influence policies, procedures and future

research (Hancock & Algozzine, 2015).

I intended to do an in depth study of purposively selected participants from a

public service organization – TETFund in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria.

TETFund is a government parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Education charged

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with the mandate to intervene through the provision of funding and project management

in all public tertiary institutions in Nigeria. To comprehend the complexity of the

leadership effectiveness in public sector organizations, there was a need to immense self

in the work lives of research participants who are employed in the public service. I

employed primary data gathered from conducting face-to-face interactions which will

enable the observation of intangibles like body language and emotional undertones of the

participants. This would also give the participants the opportunity to construct historical

experiences to explain their answers.

A very important highlight of this data collection strategy is its flexibility, as it

gives me the opportunity to come up with follow up questions to answers from

respondents to enrich research findings. It means I can continue delving for clarity as the

views and opinions of the participants are very important as the principal source of

knowledge. Finally, the outcome of this work is expected to have positive social change

implications by way of public and social awareness which would lead to increased output

and optimal service delivery. The study has a social advocacy aspect to it that would

hopefully enlighten the populace to possibilities of effective leadership and encourage

leaders at all levels to address the country’s developmental challenges, thus contributing

towards bringing social change to Nigeria.

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund – TETFund

Tertiary Education Trust Fund is a public organization (parastatal) under the

Federal Ministry of Education. TETFund was established as an intervention agency under

the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Establishment, etc.) Act, 2011 and charged with the

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responsibility for managing, disbursing and monitoring the education tax collected from

all registered companies in Nigeria, to public tertiary institutions. The parastatals

activities are targeted at improving the standard and quality of public tertiary education in

the country.

TETFund was borne out of a need to refocus the education tax fund mandate

which encompasses all levels of education in the sector to specialize in tertiary

institutions for maximum impact (Ugwuanyi, 2014). The TETFund Act repealed the

Education Tax Act Cap. E4, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and Education Tax

Fund Act No. 17, 2003. This means that their intervention programmes are restricted to

government (Federal & State) owned tertiary institutions. Tertiary institutions in Nigeria

include Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education. As at 2016, the number of

schools benefitting from TETFund interventions are 202. TETFund intervention

programmes include provision of essential physical infrastructure for teaching and

learning, provision of instructional material and equipment library development, research

funding, academic and research journal development, Academic staff training and

development. (Retrieved from www.tetfund.gov.ng/)

Evaluating the leadership in TETFund is important because over the years they

have become the major source of funding for public tertiary institutions in Nigeria and as

such a foremost public organization in the country. Initially established as an

interventionist agency to bridge the gap between institutions internally generated revenue

(IGR)/direct government allocation and institutional needs, the parastatal has become the

primary source of funding (Afianmagbon & Obiukwu, 2012). Without TETFund

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intervention, many public tertiary institutions will be lacking in basic infrastructure,

learning and teaching materials and equipment and staff with post graduate qualification.

Despite the interventions of TETFund, public tertiary institutions are inadequately

funded, have inadequate infrastructure and have not attained global recognition (Udu &

Nkwede, 2014). A Nigerian university – University of Ibadan, has been ranked among

the top 600-800 but there is room for improvement. This has been credited in part to

bureaucratic blockages in the accessing institutional allocations from TETFund.

Nigeria is striving to diversify its economy and drive development through

knowledge based innovations. Tertiary institutions are the mainstay of human capital

development in any nation through research, innovation and development. TETFund has

a role to play in supporting Nigeria on its onward move to a knowledge economy and so

it is important to ensure that there are no erroneous prioritization of policies,

misapplication of funds and optimal utility of all resources. In light of the critical role of

TETFund’s intervention, I aims to appraise the leadership of the organization and

possibly proffer strategic leadership as an alternative if necessary.

Central phenomenon

The central phenomenon of this research is constructed on an interpretive

paradigm. I decided on an interpretive paradigm as the study will explore the subjective

interpretation of participants experience (Berger, 2015). Thus, based on the paradigm

chosen, data collection will be most productive through direct interaction with

participants since the aim is to comprehend other people’s reality as interpreted

individually. A research undertaking starts with the selection of the topic, problem or area

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of interest, as well as the paradigm. A paradigm refers to the patterning of the ones’

thinking process. It is a principal example among examples, an exemplar or model to

follow according to which design actions are taken.

The epistemological position of this research is that knowledge is gained through

an understanding of the subjective experiences of individuals and for this study, it will be

articulated from:

a) Information garnered from the data collected during interviews with the

participants that work in Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Abuja in different levels of

leadership and also from people who have worked with aforementioned leaders; and

b) Review of related literature.

Population

The population for this research is public servants working in public sector

administration in its entirety. The study population is the pool from which the sample for

the study will be selected. Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls, & Ormston, (2013) state that in

identifying a study population, one has to consider the central interest of the study, subset

or sub populations to be included based on experience or excluded due to special

circumstances. This study is exploring leadership effectiveness in public sector

administration and that informed the target population.

Sampling & Sample Size

As noted by Englander (2012), selection of research participants is the first step in

data collection. The act of selecting some members from a population for the purpose of

studying them or their responses is known as sampling. Sampling is used in the data

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collection process of a research to extrapolate about the general population from which

they were chosen. Sampling could be on individuals, groups, observations and cases. For

this study I employed purposive sampling within Tertiary Education Trust Fund. Tong &

Craig (2016) describes purposive sampling as a strategy used to target a select

information-rich group with a view to capture extensive quality data.

The scope of study determines the size of ones’ sample. Patton (2002) states that

sample size depends on what I wants to know, the purpose of the inquiry, what is at stake,

what will be useful, what will be credible and what can be done with the available time

and resources? Qualitative research does not require a large number to fulfil the

generalizability criteria for the targeted population. Englander (2012) asserts a qualitative

method such as phenomenology, can meet the criterion of representativeness and

generalizability from a small number of research participants.

For this study, 20 participants was purposefully selected from Tertiary Education

Trust Fund which is a parastatal under the Ministry of Education in Abuja, the Federal

Capital Territory. Purposive sampling was the preferred sampling technique because of

the specific population under study. The study aims to engage participants who have

worked for a minimum of 12 years so that they would have experienced different

leadership styles from being rotated among parastatals and ministries. There is a constant

reshuffling and placement of officers within parastatals/ministries under the federal civil

service from time to time. I plans to increase his sample size if the aim of the study is not

achieved, that is if sufficient knowledge is not garnered from the proposed number of

participants.

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Sampling Rationale

a) It was impracticable to try and interview the population of research as the research is

a finite process constricted by time and finances.

b) Data collection will be done via interviews so it is important that the right size is

sampled to achieve the aim of a thorough job while conducting these interviews.

Taking into consideration that I had little control over timing and location for face to

face interviews as it is important that sampling was contained in a specific area so

that it will be easy for me to navigate. It was important that participants are

interviewed in their comfort zone to get the best results.

c) I understood that I was the main instrument of research and as such focus should be

on the process as the onus for generalizability lies in the findings as proffered by I

and not on the number of participants. In order words, if I was able to exhaustively

gather data from few participants, it is acceptable as far as all parameters of

trustworthiness are established.

Sample Selection

The phenomenological method in human science recommends that a researcher

engages at least three participants for a study (Englander, 2012). Therefore, I has

narrowed the study to a specific public service organization – Tertiary Education Trust

Fund (TETFund) to provide insight and also to fully comprehend the leadership

phenomenon in public sector administration (Silverman, 2016). The sample selection will

be from within the staff of Tertiary Education Trust Fund. I verbally approached random

participants to invite them to participate. The results of the verbal discussion with would-

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be participants will determine the selection of the final 16 participants from the

organization.

Sampling Criteria

The criterion for sampling participants for this study was dictated by the

following brackets;

• That the participants must be public servants residing in Nigeria.

• That they must have attained leadership or managerial positions at any

level – middle and top management preferably.

• That they are knowledgeable about the workings of organizational

leadership

• That they should have worked with different leaders/managers at different

times. I hopes that with the constant reshuffling, they would have all

worked with leaders in top managerial positions.

• That they will be available within a specified period, within which they

can choose a specific date(s) and location which is convenient for them.

• That they are willing to sign the letter of consent form.

The participants will be asked questions about their jobs and their position in the

organization to confirm suitability for the study. There answers will be further

reconfirmed informally by asking questions at their offices. The federal public service is

always top management light in the sense that an organization might have 500 staff of

which 10 to 15 will be top management staff and about 30 of middle – top management

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cadre. The participants were picked in hierarchical order from levels 12 (Principal

Officers) to 16 (Directors).

Data Collection Process and Instrumentation

Data collection was a detailed collation of other people’s experience of their

social reality interpreted by me according to his construct. Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls, &

Ormston, (2013) explains that data collection is based on the methods that best

illuminates a study and on practical considerations like timeframe and available

resources. For this study, data collection will be generated by way of face to face

interviews. Quinney, Dwyer & Chapman, (2016) describes effective interviewing as a

mining information from the experiences of individuals to draw up a composite

understanding of a phenomenon to broaden knowledge.

According to Silverman (2016), utilizing this method will task my ability to

generate authentic comprehension of the participant’s experiences. Seidman (1991) posits

that interviewing is the most appropriate method to understand the meaning people attach

to their experience, asserting that one has to access an individual’s subjective

understanding to appreciate his behavior. Face to face interviews are direct and indirect

source of information through interactions as the interviewer relies not only on spoken

words but also on unarticulated or intangible data in the form of body language. Various

authors concur that the use of open-ended, semi-structured interviews is ideal to carry out

a phenomenological research (Kyale & Brinkman, 2009; Marshall & Rossman, 2010;

Rubin & Rubin, 2012). Open ended questions give the interviewee the opportunity to

extensively express themselves (Bevan, 2014).

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Interviewing provides the opportunity to hear the interviewees’ thoughts,

memories and point of view, in his own construct of the experience and laid out in his

words. I appreciated the fact that the process of interviewing during data collection for

this study would be a collaboration between the participants and me, as noted by Chan,

Fung, & Chien (2013). The manner that a question is asked will determine the tone and

quality of response of the participant. Silverman (2016) buttresses this with his assertion

that language used in an interview is important as it shapes meanings while permitting

intersubjectivity.

It is important to note that there are criticisms of the interview method which

points out the tendency to be overly dependent on data from interviews in a bid to unearth

the secret realities behind the public image without being able to ascertain the

truthfulness of answers to open ended questions. A second school of criticism recognizes

secondary data as a more appropriate reality than primary data from interviews. In

addressing these criticisms, Hammersley (2003) points out that “interviewees’ accounts

are more likely to be affected by error and bias than the researchers’ own” but maintains

that the skepticism surrounding interview method should not encourage vacating the use

of typical interview material and interviews as a data gathering method.

The interviews process will concentrate on the participants retelling of their

interactions with their management in respect of leadership attributes. Their current

experiences in relation to decision making, organizational structure and the process that

go final outcomes will be discussed. Data gathering will be carried out within a period of

three months. Based on the three months plan, I will map out time allocations for

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participants interview subject to their available and agreement. These interview dates will

make allowance for follow up interviews where necessary.

There will be open ended questions crafted to guide the interview process. I also

plan to use a recorder with the consent of participants. I would be satisfied with data

collected when the data collected becomes monotonous. It is understood that there should

be commonalities in experience of a phenomenon by different people but when the

similarity in perspective of individual interpretation becomes largely recurrent, I will be

confident of data saturation.

Issues of trustworthiness

Rigor in qualitative studies has been the subject of debate over the years as it has

been criticized in regards to the difficulty in establishing issues of trustworthiness,

(Baskerville & Wood-Harper, 2016; Noble & Claire, 2015; Patton, 2015). Consequently,

establishing and mitigating issues of trustworthiness is of critical concern in qualitative

research as it will increase the authority of a researchers’ findings and the acceptability of

the study (Ang, Embi & Md Yunus, 2016).

It is important to note that establishing credibility of research does not mean

agreement with the research, it means that the research was carried out within specified

scientific parameters. In essence establishing trustworthiness is about clearing doubts

and inspiring confidence in thoroughness of research procedures and processes. To do

this, it is important that the stages of the research process be greatly scrutinized to ensure

accountability and avoid any form of bias (Williams & Pigeot, 2017).

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Credibility

It is important to note that the credibility of a study is interrelated to that of the

researcher (Patton, 2015). Credibility speaks to the internal validity of a research,

Silverman (2016) defines validity as matching interpretation of observations to data

collected. So to ensure credibility I will be upfront about any potential bias to the study.

According to Del Pilar Plazas, Cameron & Salas, (2016), it is essential that a researcher

recognizes his bias or pre-understanding of the study upfront as it would determine his

interpretation of the research.

Some of my bias included the fact that I has been affected by the outcome of

ineffective leadership, through abysmal service delivery in major sectors in the economy,

especially the power sector. The fact that I currently works in the government agency –

Tertiary Education Trust Fund, which is the subject of the case study. I would submit to

personal critique by a valued friend or research mentor to check bias. In my role as the

major instrument of research, he would immense self in the experiences of the

participants such that he becomes a part of their reality, meaning that their reality

becomes his reality thus negating researcher bias.

Generally in a qualitative research, it is understood that multiple realities exist due

to the fact that it is socially constructed which could prejudice the outcome of findings

(Tong & Dew, 2016; Noble & Smith, 2015). Hence the need to ensure that the truth value

of findings is what is presented. It is the view of Cutcliff & Mckenna (1999) that if others

readily relate to an experience by just reading about it, then the data presented is accurate.

I would share data collected with other staff members to see if they can relate to the

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phenomenon and also if it is applicable to them, this would to instrumental in confirming

the credibility of findings.

A populist method for credibility is triangulation where different sources of data

within the same technique are obtained to crosscheck consistency of information

gathered. Patton (2015) & Creswell (2014) recommend that I get a second or multiple

opinions on the triangulation already done. This would allow a third party scrutinize the

data collected and identify the themes or test conclusions.

Transferability

Transferability is another way of ensuring external validity. Ang, Embi & Md

Yunus, (2016) defines it as being able to apply the findings of a study to other situations.

El Hussein, Jakubec, & Osuji (2015) refers to transferability as fittingness of a research

work to other similar situations. I was particular about the processes employed for data

collection especially so that the flow towards the research outcomes is clear (Gehman,

Glaser, Eisenhardt, Gioia, Langley & Corley, 2017). This will be visible in the

comprehensive and contextual descriptions that I recorded.

Dependability

Moon et al (2016) explains that dependability is concerned with adherence to

documentation to ensure reliability of research process. I plans to have an audit trail of all

field notes in the data collection process. He will detail all interview procedure and

analysis process which would be crosschecked by a fellow researcher to reaffirm

conclusions. This can be achieved by meticulous filing/storing of research records. Patton

(2015) suggests that one should engage in constant comparison of data collected during

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gathering and that data analysis should be synergized with the purpose of study and the

research design.

Confirmability

Confirmability is ensuring that results are actual findings of the participant’s

experience. As noted by Moon eta al (2016), qualitative researchers are the primary

instrument of research which means that the quality of study is dependent on I’s skills,

experiences and ability to manage bias. All these are key to ensuring that the research

outcome can be wholly tied to data collected. I planned to use member checking to

guarantee confirmability.

Member checking according to Harper & Cole (2012) is used to enhance validity

and ensure high quality of research work. It is also known as participants’ verification or

respondent validation (Birt, Scott, Cavers, Campbell & Walter (2016), as it entails getting

feedback of a researcher’s interpretation of data collected from the participants. I

employed this method by always summarizing what the interviewee has said at the end of

the interview session to confirm accuracy of data capture from the participant. This

would be done intermittently during the interviews so as not to omit any part of the

response. It also ensured that I exhaust data gathering from each participant.

Ethical Procedures

Baskerville & Wood-Harper (2016) states that conducting research that would

involve data collection from human participants, ethically demands that informed consent

to be obtained from the participants. Silverman (2016) identifies one of the possible

ethical challenges as that which could result from data misuse. He further states that the

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relationship between researcher and participants should be based on an assurance of

confidentiality and trust as it is the key to smooth data gathering. In order to ensure that

all ethical issues are considered for the study, I had a full disclosure discussion with the

participants during which the particulars of the research were disclosed.

I divulged my doctoral student status to the participants as well as a summary of

the motivation for the study, the destination of outcomes and a proof of all the above

stated, i.e student identification was also provided to the participants (when expressly

requested). I obtained a signed consent agreement from participants which would detail

the following;

• The working title and purpose of the research.

• Institutional identification (Creswell, 2014)

• The research methodology

• The benefits of the research and the inherent potential risk from the outcome of

findings. Often times the biggest risk to participants is the risk of exposure hence;

• The assurance confidentiality and the steps taken to guarantee it.

• That the participants input is voluntary by nature.

• The flexibility due the participant especially in relation to interview locations and

the choice to stop participation at any point during the interview.

• Lastly, the participants’ decision/agreement to contribute to the study by

consenting to the interview. Creswell (2014) advices against compelling

participants to sign the consent form because a participation in a research should

be a voluntary act.

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Privitera (2017) proposes that researchers inform the participants of the

limitations (if any) of their confidentiality and where applicable offer incentives to

participate. The fact that I was upfront about the aims of the study and research processes

hopefully assured participants of the positive objectives of the study and also reaffirmed

my commitment to the participant’s confidentiality. This went a long way to assuage

participants’ fears and boosted my optimism that truthful responses to questions during

data gathering was a certainty. At the beginning of each interview, the consent form was

summarized and signatures affixed by participants. Those participants still unsure of their

commitment were excused. Creswell (2014) is of the opinion that participants deserve to

view the finished work as a way to thank them for their participation. I would not

financially able to send a copy of the finished work to each participant but I would send a

link to each participant to enable them download it after it is published.

I was cognizant of the fact that the interview process is intricate in the sense that

there should be a balance of power between interviewer and interviewee. In this research,

there was a balance asymmetry stemming from the existing working relationship between

me and the proposed participants, most of which are older and hierarchically higher at

work. It was important to have a level of rapport to ease any awkwardness and at the

same time maintain control of the flow of the interview. Also I am member of the sector

understudy and as such it might be a distracting factor to the participants and encourage

suspicion of indictment.

The country had undergone social and developmental change in government

which led to a lot of investigations to into past administrative malpractices, corruption

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and revenue mismanagement. What this portended for this study was an increase in the

degree of skepticism especially with regards to the questions and a resultant self-

protective need to be careful of utterances by participants.

I sought the approval of the Walden University’s Institutional Review Board

(IRB) before embarking on data collection.

Summary

In this chapter, I had discussed the methodology and the rationale for choosing

research design, methodology and method. The study was conducted using the

phenomenological method and explored from an interpretive paradigm taking into

account individual perspectives. To further streamline the study, a case study method was

chosen. Data was collected by face to face interviews so as to be cognizant of intangibles

like facial expressions and body language which also form part of the data collection

process. For sampling. There was a significant criteria which dictated that the participants

must be knowledgeable about the phenomenon of study (Gehman, Glaser, Eisenhardt,

Gioia, Langley & Corley, 2017). Ethical concerns were addressed especially in respect

of confidentiality in terms of anonymity and researcher bias.

Chapter 4 would detail the process of data collection and analysis. It would speak

to the methods of analysis and the address issues of trustworthiness. The results from the

findings after analysis was given and data to support findings also presented.

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Chapter 4: Results

Introduction

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was an attempt to

understand leadership effectiveness in public sector administration in Nigeria with the

aim of proffering sustainable solutions to inadequate service delivery among other issues.

I also set out to consider the implication of adopting a strategic leadership approach as an

option for public sector administration in Nigeria. To do this I considered leadership

theories which includes transformational, transactional, great-man, charismatic,

situational, behavioral, contingency among others as it relates to leadership behavior.

Consequently, I approached my study by collecting data with the following

research questions as a guide;

RQ1: What leadership approach currently exist in public sector administration

in Nigeria, with particular reference to Tertiary Education Trust Fund

(TETFund)?

RQ2: How does the leadership approach adopted by TETFund hinder/enhance

effective service delivery?

RQ3: How can the adoption of strategic leadership approach address the

challenges (if any) of TETFund as a for public sector organization in

Nigeria?

This chapter explains the process of data collection and analysis process. I

employed the face to face interview method for data collection. I will describe the

interview setting, the demographics, number of participants and the frequency. I will

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provide evidence of trustworthiness – credibility, transferability, dependability and

confirmability as it relates to my data collection processes. Lastly, I will present the

results, discussing it according to each question.

Setting

To proceed with data collection, I started out by securing the approval of the

Internal Review Board (IRB) of Walden University. I subsequently carried out my data

collection in the form of face to face interviews with staff of Tertiary Education Trust

Fund, Abuja (TETFund). TETFund is a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of

Education charged with ensuring the progress and growth of public tertiary institutions

through interventions in areas of infrastructure, academic training and research

development. All participants were purposefully selected based on established criteria,

specifically their level/position in the organization. This was to ensure that there was the

right mix of top and middle management staff with enough experience in the public

sector to have gathered enough experience and also provide an in-depth view during the

interviewing.

Prior to the interviews, the participants were sent a letter of invitation/consent

letter which fully informed them of the process and expectations of the interview. The

interviews were carried out during a period of organizational restructuring, the

management of Tertiary Education trust Fund, consisting of a Board of Trustees and the

Executive Secretary were dissolved and a new Executive Secretary was appointed by the

President as a result of the recent democratic change in governance. The election of

President Muhammad Buhari brought about massive termination of appointments in

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federal government institutions of which TETFund is one of them, some reassignment of

key officers and new appointments. The Executive Secretary assumed office in August

2016, and has since started instituting some organizational changes including

reassignment of staff members and restructuring of departments among others.

Worthy of note also is that the country has been going through a period of

recession which has brought about high inflation and its attendant increased hardship on

the general population. The current situation has been attributed to overall leadership

inadequacy which also involves the public sector administration through federal

institutions. Henry (2012) posits that public administration is essential to the democracy,

competency and ultimately good governance.

Demographics

The participant pool for this study was from the senior staff of Tertiary Education

Trust Fund with diverse background to ensure that perspectives and opinions enrich the

study. There was a mix of female and male participants, females – 5, and males – 11. I

purposefully selected those in the management cadre and they include directors, deputy

directors and assistant directors who head Departments and Units in the organization. I

also added some middle management officers who have leadership roles formal or

informal. Participants fall within the age group of 35-60. As discussed in chapter three;

the breakdown is detailed below flows in the order of hierarchy.

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Table 2.

Participants and Frequency

S/N Participants No. Position Grade

level

Frequency

1. Directors 4 Heads of Departments & Units 16 2

2. Deputy Directors 5 Heads of Departments & Units 15 1

3. Assistant

Directors

3 Senior Management 14 1

4. Chief Officers 3 Senior Staff 13 1

5. Principal Officers 2 Senior Staff 12 1

TOTAL 17 16

Informed Consent

The ethics of research demands that the inquirer protects participants’

confidentiality as well as seek formal/informed consent. Williams & Pigeot, (2017)

explains that obtaining informed consent from a participant is certifying accountability,

and the willingness of their involvement with the study. This is necessary especially for

face-to-face interviews where the questions will likely be unstructured or semi-structured,

serving as guidelines. This means that there was room for clarification by asking

additional based on the answers received from respondents.

Consequently, to proceed with data collection, I sent a consent form which

detailed particulars of the study to the participants to officially indicate their willingness

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to participate as well as their understanding of the modalities of the study and the

interview process. In line with Gianotti et al, (2017), I had clarified the confidentiality

measures that I had taken and those to be taken in respect of how data collected would be

secured, and I also reiterated the fact that they were at liberty to withdraw at any point

during the interviews. Although I had assured participants of utmost confidentiality, most

of them, especially those in the upper echelons of leadership in the organization still tried

to be “politically correct”. In other words, most of them tried to respond to questions

cautiously and some answers were either evasive or defensive. It gave me a better

understanding of the statement by Riaz, Khan & Jafar, (2017) that the importance of

informed consent is realizable but not usually practiced. The participants expressed their

inclination by signing the consent form but practically their responses showed that the

consent form did not totally assuage their unacknowledged fear of possible leakages of

their answers.

Gubrium, Holstein, Marvasti & Mckinney (2012) note that informed consent in

certain places only exist on paper in social realities. He went further to state that it often

times just completes the façade of ethics as required during research. I could agree to a

certain point within the context of my study because I sensed the underlying fear of

repercussions to participants’ true experiences, and position on organizational

behavior/culture. It was further confirmed at the end of some of the interviews where

participants were more forthcoming on their experiences during the “off the record”

chats. I found that once I ended the interview formally and turned off the recorder, some

participants became more forthcoming and uninhibited. They always had last minute

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recollections of events and truthful expression of their opinions of the internal

contrivances of the organization.

The cautious response from some participants compelled me to persistently

rephrase questions to try and get through some evasive answers to their real experiences.

It worked in most cases but for those participants that were also very good at skirting my

questions. In other cases I had to reschedule the interview to meet them at a different

locations, and on a different day with the hopes that a different scenario would help them

relax. This ultimately prolonged the time slated for data collection but at the same, it also

enhanced the integrity of my study.

Data Collection

The data collection strategy used was the face-to-face interviews. Data collection

sample was initially estimated at 25particpants. Consequently, on receipt of the Walden

IRB approval, I contacted a total number of 42 participants. Contacting a larger number

than the target was done in anticipation of rejections. Some of the participants were

approached at a seminar organized by the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) in

Abuja and obtained their verbal consent and contact details. I also approached some

participants by sending messages on LinkedIn. Several participants called me for a follow

up questions and meeting where they sought for clarification on the modalities of the

study. Some did not respond in any way while others gave their consent immediately. I

followed up with the formal presentation of a detailed consent letters for signing by the

participants and time scheduling for the interviews. The outcome of this process was a

total number of 21 willing participants.

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At the convenience of participants, face to face interviews were conducted for a

total period of 1-3 hours depending on availability and readiness for disclosure. I

emphasized on “total period” because some interviews were carried over a number of

days. During the face to face interviews, both participants and interviewer had their

assigned roles in the question and answer structure as noted by Gubrium, Holstein,

Marvasti & McKinney, (2012). And so we had an understanding that I will do the

questioning and the participants will share their experiences in their responses. As

suggested by Fujii (2018), I was conscious of treating the respondents with dignity and

esteem irrespective of their disposition during individual interviews throughout the

interview process.

I embarked on data collection with a clear understanding of my role as

interviewer who needs a better understanding of this phenomenon. I was appreciative of

the fact that the participants were indulging me with the service of their time and total

recall. I also acknowledged my position as a subordinate staff to majority of the

participants engaged for the data collection process, noting there was a need to ensure a

balance of power during the interviews so that I am not overwhelmed or intimidated by

the official superiority of my participants. To do this, I started out by mentality putting

myself in the role of a researcher, outside the organization and not that of a subordinate

so that I do not see the participants as my supervisors or bosses as the case may be but as

contributors to the study. I also explained the need for neutrality during the interviews to

each participant and politely asked that they put aside their official persona so that the

interview will be conducted strictly as a scholarly endeavor between interviewee and

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interviewer on impersonal basis. Throughout the interviews, I reiterated my position as an

unbiased researcher intermittently so that they are constantly reminded of my

noninvolvement status in the interview.

At the beginning of each interview, I proceeded by given a summary of the study,

explaining the purpose and focus of the study. I clarified how the data collected would be

utilized and handled. I particularly reassured participants that their confidentiality was

guaranteed and that I would not use their personal information for any purpose outside of

this research project. I enlightened all participants about the coding of participant names

to ensure anonymity. I had coded each participants using T01 – T17 and maintained the

codes for every part of the data collection and analyzing process that had to do with

participants.

I reiterated that participation was voluntary and that they could withdraw at any

point without prejudice or repercussions. I also asked for and received permission to

record our discussions on a voice recorder. A participant wanted to know how safe the

recorder was since he believes that voices could be recognized. I assured the participant

that I was the only one with access to the recorder and that it was locked up in a safe at

the end of each interview for safekeeping. The recorded interview and the notes taken for

each participant was coded using the participants’ assigned code.

I always start off interviews with a little chitchat to make my respondents

comfortable because the body language of some of them tended to be stiff. Starting off,

their responses veered towards determined positivity in their answers but as it progressed,

they relaxed and became more forthcoming and even eager to be heard. Data was

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collected both manually, by jotting down most points in my interview journal and

electronically using of a voice recorder for those participants who allowed it. At intervals,

I rephrased my questions to clarify certain points and also restated their answers to ensure

that it is properly understood.

The data collection stage was not as straight forward as I had envisaged. Contrary

to the ease experienced while scheduling these interviews, I found that the reality of

timing was an issue for the participants. For example, a participant asked to meet after

work hours and then cancelled last minute. This was after I had waited for about thirty

minutes. I realized that the time set for the interviews was not sufficient and this resulted

in meeting up with participants twice or thrice as the case may be. There was another

case where the interview was rescheduled because at the start of the interview, the

participant decided that he would rather have a copy of all the interview questions for a

couple of days to properly prepare for the interview.

I had allotted 2 hours for each interview but the duration varied for each

participant. I rescheduled some interviews due to timing, participants’ discomfort and a

need to delve deeper for answers. As the interviews progressed, I realized that people

really were not predisposed to sit for a long period of time so I asked and received

permission to spread the interview period to 2 or 3 days in line with their availability and

convenience to ensure that they were comfortable at every point. Also some participants

were being too cautious in their answers and there was a need for rescheduling, in a bid to

interview them at a time and place where they would be more forthcoming with their

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responses. The data collection process lasted over 7 weeks. It was difficult to control

interruptions from people as a result of choice of venues by the participants.

Data collection was confined to a small number to study reactions intensively. I

concluded data collection at the point of information saturation/redundancy (Cleary,

Horsfall, & Hayter, 2014). Data collection is said to be saturated when no new

information can be added to that which has been already collected on a topic/question, in

essence the response are becoming repetitive.

A noteworthy addition to my data collection was my research diary. I recorded

detailed descriptive notes from my field study from the beginning to the end. I also

recorded my thoughts throughout the data collection process. During data collection, I

considered every discussion, especially the impromptu interactions I had regarding

leadership an important data source and always jotted my opinions as well as the opinions

of my discussants in my diary. I tried to document them as soon as I could, often times on

the spot if I had access to my diary or on a piece of paper to be later transferred to my

diary. I also started using the recorder on my phone to articulate my exact thoughts after

spontaneous interactions so as to capture them without diluting information gathered. I

would later write it down in my diary at the end of the day. These spontaneous

discussions helped me to organize my thoughts as I moved forward in data gathering. In

the field notes I made observations of the body language of each participants during

interviews and also noted any conflicting statements from interviewees.

It is important to note that all interviews were strictly conducted between each

participant and me. There was no third party present during each interview. The

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interviews were recorded on a voice recorder. This was done to prevent any form of

partial or total data loss due to malfunction or the wrong operation of my recording

device. Furthermore, each interview was downloaded and stored on a password locked

folder on my computer to ensure security and again protect against data loss and. The

recorder was locked away after usage in a secure locker. In line with the data protection

stipulations of the Walden IRB, the raw data will be kept in storage for a period of not

less than five years.

Data Analysis

Data analysis as explained by Vaismoradi, Bondas, Turunen (2013), is the process

of transforming data from description to interpretation. I employed content analysis to

examine information gathered. Schreier (2014) defines content analysis as the process of

systematically describing the meaning of qualitative data using a coding frame, in

essence one is trying to understand data. Content analysis involves the identification of

the theme of collected, theme being the practical results, the essence of participants’

experience of the concepts from field study (Vaismoradi, Jones, Turunen, & Snelgrove,

2016). My choice of content analysis is strengthened by Paradis, O'Brien, Nimmon,

Bandiera, & Martimianakis, (2016) who opined that it is used to investigate changes in

official, institutional and organization view in respect peoples’ experience or perspectives

about certain practices.

I have to mention that data analysis was ongoing throughout the period of that

gathering because I had to edit a huge amount of data collected. Goethals, Dierckx de

Casterle, & Gastmans, (2013) rightly noted that qualitative data collection yields a

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massive amount of data which results in intricate analysis. During data collection, I

realized that I got so much information on issues of exclusion like gender and ethnicity.

This was due to the fact that my data collection method – face to face interviews allowed

people to speak their minds about issues that they have been bottling up. So often times

this resulted in deviations from the central focus of study. I ended up gathering so much

data that it was important to start sorting through answers immediately after each

interview to put them in categories. It was also important to read through data collected

while sorting to determine point of saturation for each line of question.

Transferring field notes to working drafts, I had to constantly restrict data sorting

categories to the issues of leadership and its effectiveness within the public sector

because the data collected covered other issues outside the study’s primary focus. As I

continued categorizing, I flagged striking information that popped up. I also tried to

reconfirm certain information via crosschecking the answers from other participants. I

had no clear idea of the acceptable quantity of data to use so I highlighted as much as

possible knowing that I could edit it later. I also took into consideration

supervision/review from my committee to direct me on suitability of data content during

their assessment of my work. I also transcribed certain aspects of interview recording to

textual format.

I started by reading my interview notes to try and get a sense a general sense of

the data and the trend of phenomenon under study. This was to prepare me to readily

recognize the vital clues to the beginning of theme formulation as presented by the data. I

went on to listen to the recorded interviews for the same purpose and made notes of direct

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quotes that I could use. While listening I also attempted to put down some of the

recurrent abstracts in participant description. Through the above stated process, I was

able to generate meaningful recurrent ideas and key issues in participants’ comments or

event description, aligning them in categories. I used codes to condense the amount of

data, filtering the unambiguous and inherent meanings. I most note that my journal

helped me chat my analytical process steps because my thoughts were captured and it

maintained a sense of continuity for every time I return to my analysis.

After transcription of the interviews, I started comparing the responses to identify

categories and themes. I made up a board and started dividing data into relevant themes

and subthemes while still linking them to the main theme. At a point, I had to go back to

refresh on research method – phenomenology, so that my analysis would be in

congruence with the epicenter of the study and my methodology. This is positive for my

data analysis as it is a form of self-assessment to ensure that my immersion in the data

collection /analysis process enhances my effectiveness in data representation. I

maintained flexibility throughout the process so that I could move data around, go back

to the data to sift out more information based on its relevance to the results or lack

thereof.

Through the process of categorizing, five main themes were identified, they are;

Leadership inadequacy, communication gap, unskilled leadership, favoritism; and

ethnicity.

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Evidence of Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness in a study is to establish thoroughness, appropriateness of method

and ultimately support findings (Elo, Kääriäinen, Kanste, Pölkki, Utriainen, & Kyngäs,

2014). Qualitative research has been plagued with concerns about the trustworthiness of

methods implemented especially in areas of external validity (Noble & Smith, 2015). I

was faced with the challenge of overcoming my concerns in respect of the neutrality,

consistency, applicability and truth value of the study results. Consequently, I would

detail the steps taken to ensure trustworthiness using the criteria proposed for qualitative

research which include: Credibility, Transferability, Dependability and Confirmability

(Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Polit & Beck, 2012; Schreier, 2014).

Credibility

Credibility refers to the reliability of a researchers’ representation and

interpretation of participants’ experiences (Cope, 2014; Polit & Beck, 2012). It is

concerned with the truthfulness and authenticity of research findings. It seeks to ensure

that research outcome can be generalized by the ease with which people identify with the

interpretation of the human experience. To guarantee the integrity of my study, I started

out by creating protocols to improve the efficiency of data collection instruments. I

started out by crafting out interviews to act as guide during data collection. These

interview questions were further refined by seeking the opinions of my supervisors. It

was also sent to an external supervisor residing in Nigeria to get his input from a Nigerian

standpoint taking into consideration that the study is based on the Nigerian Clime. Lastly,

I invited a fellow post graduate researcher to further review the interview questions.

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As noted by (Thomson & Collyer, 2017), I started out by establishing an

interviewer – participant rapport that would ease the flow of conversation. I had to

interview some participants 3 times because of scheduling constraints. Initially I had been

discomfited by the request by participants to continue at subsequent times but this

intervals ended up strengthening the credibility of my data collection because they were

often times more forthcoming on subsequent interviews. This ended up collaborating

what they have said previously, enriching their responses or contradicting their initial

stand.

During this process, I meticulously kept a journal that detailed my reflections of

everything about my research. This assisted me in remembering minute specifics of the

data collection/analysis process and provided guidance for most subsequent actions that I

needed to take. Vaismoradi, Jones, Turunen, & Snelgrove (2016), notes that the audit trail

that writing reflective notes provides, serves to validate trustworthiness.

Transferability

Transferability is indicative of generalization and external validity, it looks at the

applicability of research findings to a different context or setting (Morse, 2015). I

initialized the transferability of study at the sampling criteria and selection stage. The aim

of my study was to explore leadership effectiveness in public sector administration in

Nigeria, so participants had to be public servants working and residing in Nigeria who

must have attained leadership or managerial positions at any level – middle and top

management.

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I streamlined participant pool to a case study of Tertiary Education Trust Fund

(TETFund), a public organization under the Federal Ministry of Education. The

participants are a mix of ethnicities to ensure that different perspectives are captured,

taking into consideration that the country Nigeria, is a multi- ethnic Republic. It was

important that diversity in the public service be represented. Participants were also a

gender mix, having 4 women and 12 men in the group.

Dependability

Elo, Kääriäinen, Kanste, Pölkki, Utriainen, & Kyngäs (2014) describes

dependability as stability through the test of time and different conditions while Morse, J.

M. (2015) simplifies it by describing it as the repeatability of the study. My

demonstration of dependability can be traced to the thought process that went into every

phase of the study, the decision trails. It starts from carefully selecting and providing a

comprehensive description of the research design, method and methodology.

Furthermore, I detailed the sample selection criteria and data collection/analysis

strategies. I considered the importance of the data collection instrumentation to the

outcome of research, noting specifically the need to generate rich, in-depth data in line

with the overarching focus of research. Thus, I put the interview questions through

rigorous vetting by sending it to my supervisors both internal and external to evaluate its

correctness. I further sent the interview questions to fellow researchers to also scrutinize.

I believe that this study can be deemed dependable and can also be replicated following

the steps from inception to completion.

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Confirmability

I used member checking as a confirmability strategy. Member checking is the

ability to demonstrate that the research outcome was a direct result of participant’s

representation of their experiences as gathered during data collection through respondent

validation. During the interviews, I intermittently summarized and rephrased what

respondent said to clarify as confirm my understanding of responses and ensure accuracy

of data collected. This also served to prevent omissions. In line with Cope, (2014), I

approached participants with a transcript of the themes that emerged from data analysis

for them to crosscheck and ensure that there were no misrepresentations.

This presented an opportunity for them to flesh out information given. I received

feedback and clarifications from some participants while some validated the summary.

Upon receipt of the clarification, I crosschecked their input with the raw data and updated

my analysis accordingly. I subsequently returned to those participants who had

clarifications and the updated summary was duly authenticated, thus verifying that the

information provided was accurately recorded/represented.

Presentation of Results

In this section of the study, I present the results after a comprehensive data

collection which was done by means of face-to-face interviews as I had explained above.

This is a representation of the individual interviews of public servants who voluntarily

participated in the research. I had interviewed four (4) Directors, five (5) Deputy

Directors, four (3) Assistant Directors, three (3) Chief Officers and two (2) principal

officers, bringing the participants to a total of 17 persons. The interview was guided by a

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set of 14 questions that was adapted from the research questions with a view to explore

the challenges of public sector leadership from a different angle. As the interview

progressed there were sub questions aimed at clarifying issues. It is envisaged that the

outcome of this research will serve to boost service delivery in public sector

organizations through leadership effectiveness.

The results were classified into eight categories while noting the themes that

emerged. I will be interspersing a narrative description of participant’s response as well

as quoting some responses verbatim.

Research Question one

What leadership approach currently exist in public sector administration in

Nigeria, with particular reference to Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)?

Category 1: Leadership role in Public Sector Administration.

This research question sought to understand the participants understanding of role

of leadership in public sector administration in Nigeria from the TETFund perspective.

Thus the interviews started out with enquiries about the role of leadership in the public

sector and sought to understand the participants’ general knowledge of leadership. I

found that majority of participants viewed the concept of leadership as a key factor in the

success of an organization. The participants understood the fluidity of the leader/follower

relationship. They were quite certain that the burden of navigating an organization rested

principally on the leadership. The participants were also conscious of the part that they

were meant to play.

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They knew what was expected of them from their leaders, using terms like

teamwork, diligence, respect and hardwork to describe their role as followers. They were

very clear on the importance of leadership and this was further emphasized by a

participant when he/she stated that “without leadership, there will be no focus in the

organization”. Other excerpts buttressing this interpretation from the interview transcripts

of their opinions are detailed below;

Participant T03 stated that “leadership is the oxygen that an organization needs

to survive, citing that it can neither be good nor bad but that it can be suffocating /too

much and the other extreme is when it is comatose or too little”.

Participant T15 opined that “Leadership is providing a headway for

achieving a decided goal. In public sector generally, our leaders lack one

major thing. That is leading by example. Most leaders hardly carry their

people along. I think that is major challenge experienced. Leaders are

selective, you select the few that you like or you think that can achieve

your goal. That is not good for any system. When you do selective delegation

of duty, you are personalizing it. All inclusive leadership is what is lacking, you

look at faces, my brother, my sister. So responsibility is delegated based on who

you like and not on the existing structure. And often times they are not equipped

for the job and then it drags the organization backwards”.

T11 said that “leadership to him is the glue that binds an organization. That the

speed of progress in an organization is directly proportional to the usefulness of

leadership. There should be equilibrium between leaders & followers.

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It was apparent that the participants appreciated the significant role of leadership

to goal achievement in an organisation whether private or public. A summary of some

adjectives used to qualify leadership include responsible, diligently, exemplary, integrity,

mindful among others. It was explained that there should be a symbiotic relation between

leaders and subordinate which constitutes teamwork.

Category 2: Existing Public Sector leadership Approach in Nigeria.

Having established their understanding of the overarching role of leadership in

organizational administration, I tried to tie their knowledge to their perception of

leadership as it exist in the Nigerian public sector administration. The responses were not

reflective of their concept of leadership, it showed a gap between what they understood

as well as expected leadership to be and the type of leadership that they experience in

their organizations. Some of their responses are detailed below;

Participant T10 explained “My perception of leadership in the Nigerian

milieu as it were, is that it is absent. That’s my perception. I am yet to see a

clear cut presence of leadership and this is not because there are not men and

women of caliber that is capability. Or that there are people who do not

understand what leadership is all about but principally because the goal is not

defined. Therefore the path to the goal is still hazy. I mean when you do not know

where you are going, how do take off on the journey in the first place”.

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This point of distorted or absent leadership in public sector administration was

further reinforced by other participants through interchangeable statements as noted

below;

Participant T08 says “What I really think about this is, is that the public sector in

Nigeria is really, does not really really have that clear cut leadership that can

transcend to the upcoming public servants. The leaders are more self - centered.

The leaders, when they get to that level, they only think more of themselves. It is

not an inclusive type of leadership where you are allowed to bring in your

thoughts, your views. You cannot do that. They just keep telling you that, look,

this is public service so you just keep doing it the way it is run”.

Participant T07 says “generally public sector in Nigeria defines leadership

itself. It has a set of rules that hardly gives room for creativity, for ingenuity, it is

like there is something out there to achieve, and then there is process through

which to achieve it, and that this process should be followed religiously, to the

extent that you…. To my mind, its fixation, it is something that is fixed. Rules are

set, which is okay, it is good to set rules but at the time rules are set to the extent

that everything from beginning to end is already decided by sets of rules, sets of

laws that the leader may only be allowed to implement. Perhaps he is only there to

implement. It gives little room for creativity. That is my own perception of

leadership in the public sector. So I see a leader in the Nigerian public sector

like….really a robot”.

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In qualifying the existing leadership approach in the public service, the answers

gotten from participants ranged from autocratic, consultative, participatory, entitled to

dictatorship. Find below a table of the description of leadership approach in TETFund

and Public sector organizations compiled from the responses of all the participants in this

study.

Table 3.

Leadership Summary in Public Sector Administration

Description of Leadership in

TETFund & Public Sector

Frequency by

Respondents

Autocratic 2

Consultative 1

Personalized 1

Entitled 1

Participatory 1

Unfocused 3

Inspirational 1

Prejudiced 2

Mentoring 2

Single-Minded 2

Unmerited 4

Ill - Equipped 6

Malicious 1

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Inclusive 1

Dominant 2

Team- work 1

Skewed 3

Mediocre 1

Unimaginative 3

Territorial 1

Selective 3

Transactional 2

Limited or Constrained 1

Leadership was described as a one-man show where directives are just passed

down from above. There were complaints of non-inclusiveness of employees in

organizational plans and misdirection by leaders. Participant T05 stated that his/her

perception of leadership in Nigeria is very different and he makes this assertion based on

his work experience in other organizations which is very different. H/She notes that

leaders in other organizations (especially the private institutions) and in other countries

lead you to succeed but that in Nigeria, one is led to fail”. H/She attributes it to the

placing of round pegs in square holes saying that “no matter how good you are if you are

under a bad leader, you are bound to fail.” This was further upheld by the following

statements;

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Participant T06 said that “leadership presupposes that there is a goal. That we

are not talking of bosses and directors, leadership should own the job. Public

service is still in limbo, people do not understand what they are in service of.

They do not understand the end goal or maybe there is no end goal”.

Participant T01 says that “leadership is the same in this organization as in

everywhere in Nigeria. It’s autocratic. They operate like it’s a personal business,

like this is our thing, not minding the development of the organizations

development, they don’t think about building up the system, it’s more about

themselves. It’s not inclusive. They sit and decide the way they want to run the

organization”.

A participant noted that Departmental/Unit heads in the organization are territorial

because of a perceived believe that some Departments/Units in the organisation are more

important than the others, in other words a battle of departmental supremacy. These

heads can also be considered leaders of the Department/Units that they are in charge of.

H/she opined that these leaders often forget that the different Departments/Units are set

up to carry out their various duties in a collaborative manner towards the achievement of

a common organizational goal. H/She stated;

“In this organization, there has always been this territorial protection

which current leadership has been talking about breaking. Departments see

themselves as entities to the extent that some departments think they are superior

to others and this has been really working against the realization of the

organizations’ mandate. I can tell you that until recently some directors do not

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understand the workings of other departments simply because it is out of bounds.

This I know has been a problem. Efforts have and are being made to break this

habit”.

The common point made by most participants was that the existing leadership

were prone to personalization of official operations. Another form of personalization or

favoritism as the case may be, as i understood from participants is that leaders choose

people that they want to work with irrespective of the persons capabilities or the fact that

there are others more qualified to do the job. Summarily, leaders lacked many attributes

of true or effective leadership that would in turn stimulate true followership from their

employees.

Question 2

How does the leadership approach adopted by TETFund hinder/enhance effective

service delivery?

Category 3: Leadership Impact on Staff.

Sub Category A: Staff Motivation

In order to explore leadership effect on service delivery, it was important to

examine how it affected the staff who are directly responsible for service delivery. I

asked questions about the effect of leadership on employees and their motivation to work.

I also asked questions about leadership and employee output in terms of service delivery.

Most answers I got tended towards demotivation. 13 participants out of the 17

interviewed expressed their dissatisfaction with certain leadership behaviors that has

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resulted in low work morale at work. They stated that in order to justify their presence at

work, they have resorted to personal motivation to get work done. Some attributed their

ability to work to innate maturity and experience because leadership has not afforded

them with a favorable atmosphere to work. 7 participants complained of inadequate work

tools while 6 participants claimed that they have not been active at work because there

has been no clear job assignations.

Participant T09 for instance, stated “I am not motivated. I just make the best of a

bad situation. My work tools are inadequate, my office is not conducive, and it is tight. I

know subordinates who have better office space. I work with someone who does not

appreciate my input. My suggestions are always met with attacks so I don’t even want to

talk or contribute during our meetings”.

Participant T02 described the effect of the leadership approach saying,

“Oftentimes I am indifferent knowing full well that my thoughts, my

feelings and my ideas are inconsequential. At other times, I am concerned

because the decisions taken may affect me negatively sooner or much later

so I am concerned as to what informs the decisions taken by the leadership”.

Participant T06 states that “based on the quantum of experience I have, I have to

ignore things to get work done. If you don’t ignore, you can’t perform. You have

to work round the issues in your workplace. Leadership doesn’t give you a

conducive atmosphere to work. You don’t even have the full complement of

equipment to work. I had to bring my personal tools to work, just to get work

done”.

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A participant said that S/He is not motivated and has no job satisfaction in the

organization. S/He went further to state that it was time to start looking for other

opportunities in other organizations/sectors. This was as a result of non-inclusion and

feeling of been intentionally sidelined. S/He noted that there are spates of stagnancy in

the organisation, some people are idle so there is no work output or no deliverables.

Sub Category B: Favoritism

Favoritism was also identified as a fallout of leadership approach that also affects

the way some staff relate with their colleagues. Some participants were of the opinion

that the leadership approach or behaviour has deepened the cultural, religious and ethnic

divide in public sector organizations due to some special treatment or allowances made

for certain people. They alluded to decision making by leaders being based on familial,

ethnic or religious affiliation. Some referred to it as tribalism. This they said breeds

discontent as well as a need to identify with your own, among staff. To buttress this fact

Participant T07 said;

“Tribalism comes to play here a lot. And because tribalism plays a long

role, it affects performance of leaders in the organization, because when you are

thinking or trying to take a decision that concerns or impacts people under you,

people always first of all, think of where the person is coming from, is it from my

side, is he from this side, that side before you pass a judgment or make a decision.

That singular action creates a lot of problem, not just here bur in Nigeria as a

whole. It has a strong negative impact. For example look at my office, at my

level, see my work table? It shouldn’t be so. This happens probably because of

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where I come from. Maybe if I had come from a different tribe maybe the person

in charge would have made an effort to give me the right tools….maybe I will be

given better consideration. I know my juniors in this office who have better

offices… all because people are from the same place”.

I found that people actually believed some staff had leverage based on their

affiliation to management, either through friendship, religion, familial or ethnic. Some

examples cited that highlighted the ethnic divide, was based on familiarity at work

between people of a particular ethnic group.

Question 3

How can the adoption of strategic leadership approach address the challenges (if

any) of TETFund as a for public sector organization in Nigeria?

Category 6: Organizational Strategy

I started out by asking questions about the organizational strategy and vision. It

was insightful to find that most participants said the organization had a strategic plan but

were unable to expand on the strategic plan because they had not seen it. For instance

while responding on this matter, participant T11 stated thus:

“If we have a strategic plan, I am not aware of it”. I know that at one point,

the organization was working on a plan but I have not seen the finished

product”.

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Participant T10 said “A strategic plan is supposed to be a reference point for the

implementation of the roadmap for goals attainment. And so if that document

exists, we are yet to use it or maybe others are using it without sharing”.

Participant T07 states “The organization has no strategic plan so any one, I

mean, any leader who comes, brings his own ideas and we start going through a

period of adjustment that might not be well instituted before the next leader

comes.

The responses were indicative of a communication gap in respect of the

organizations’ strategic plan by the management to the staff. I came to this supposition

because some participants knew that there was a vision and mission statement which

assumes that it is part of a strategic plan process or document but at the same time they

could not confirm if there was a one available. In response to further questions on

organizational strategy, Participant T05 said;

“We have our mission and vision.. to be a world class interventionist

agency...so there must be a strategic plan document though I cannot

remember seeing it now. Am sure the problem is just that it was not circulated”.

Participant T02 said

“I cannot categorically answer yes or no to that question. I know we are

working on a new plan but I was not conversant with the old plan. So no, the

answer is not as simple as it seems”.

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I found a lot of inconsistencies moving from one participant to another about the

existence of an organizational strategy and that buttressed the point that participant T11

made when h/she said that the organization was faced with the issue of territorialism by

Department/Units Heads. This has resulted in knowledge gap between department and

staff members as information is hoarded and sectionalized to specific Department /Units.

A participant said that an organization without a strategy plan is prone to trial and errors

by any one leading it. S/He noted that lack of organizational strategy was the reason for

lack of continuity. Every new organizational head comes with his or her plan so some

programs that were started by the former management are stopped even after resources

have been committed to such programmes.

Category 7: Strategy in Leadership

Participants noted that strategy is lacking both for the organization and in

leadership. For an organization to progress without a cohesive plan for the achievement

of their mandate or goal points to the fact that there has been a deficiency in preparation.

Participant T04 said that “if our leaders were strategic, meritocracy will have be

a top priority in everything we do. Jobs will be assigned based on capability and

not familiarity”.

Participant T02 noted that strategy starts from day one. If you hire a mediocre,

you will breed mediocrity. Putting square pegs in round holes will never amount

to any level of efficiency, it will amount to continuous mistakes. So much effort

goes into correction of mistakes in the public service. Its trial and error that we

practice here.

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Participant T06 noted that strategy would help in addressing certain peculiarities of

public service. There are some core issues with meritocracy and rewards. He stated

“In the public service unlike the private sector, no matter how brilliant

and hardworking you are, your promotion will come at the same time with the

dullest and weakest link. This typically kills employee motivation to be creative,

to think outside the box”.

Participant T03 notes that strategy in leadership would encourage them to employ a

feedback mechanism to be able to reassess itself and restrategise. He notes that leadership

is very biased in TETFund and says that it is a public sector malaise. He notes that

tribalism clouds the judgment of leadership decisions. Participant T08 supports this

assertion by stating that;

“Planning for success can never be underestimated. You need to be open to

feedback so that you plan on how to go on”.

Participant T02 – “I wish I could talk without receiving backlash, or being

victimized for my true opinion. So most times I find myself tailoring my speech

so as to be acceptable. I wish the leadership was one without fear or favor where

expressions are encouraged”.

Participant T04 responded that Leadership is an evolving process and so leaders

should be open to positive change. So any approach that will increase my

motivation to work, make me happy coming to work every day and give me the

satisfaction of achievement is welcomed.

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The answers I got on the question of strategy led me to the understanding that most

participants had a sense of a strategy in place but were not conversant with the details of

said strategy. I found that most employees yearned for leadership in its true sense. They

want to have jobs probably explained and people to emulate. They want to be included in

organizational plans. They were open to any approach that will improve their work life. I

have to note that a participant didn’t see anything wrong with the leadership system in the

organization directly. S/He opined that it has always been like that in public service and

did not see the system changing anytime soon.

Infractions

The study findings generally tilted to a lot of information and knowledge gap and

this could be attributed to ineffective leadership. I have to note that there were some

contradicting statements from the participants. One of the participants alluded to his

perception of leadership in the public sector to robots who are told what to do by certain

rules and policies that guide implementation. At this point I had to seek for clarification

on his view of leadership because earlier he had described leaders as people who are able

to influence decisions. And so this description was contrary to his view of leaders as

robots who just implement instructions. He maintained that there is leadership but one

constrained by rules and as such they are unable to achieve what he might want to

achieve.

In furtherance to this discussion, I asked who sets these rules that constrains

leaders and the answer was Government, specifically leaders in government. In essence,

leaders set the rules that restricts leaders to a robotic role. Basically, what I deciphered

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from this particular interview was that leadership was constrained in the Nigerian public

sector administration due to some sets of rules and policies imposed by former

leadership.

Another example of the contradictions that I noted was that Participant T05 said

that there is no motivation to work due to the fact that management is biased and people

are being marginalized, victimized based on tribe, religion or personality. And then when

asked about his job satisfaction, he rated it 80%. This was inconsistent with the tone of

that particular interview so far. I was trying to understand how one can rate their job

satisfaction so highly in a work environment where you are supposed to be marginalized

or victimized. Consequently I questioned how one could achieve such high level of job

satisfaction in a job that treats you below expectation, the participant responded thus;

” I have to personally ignore a lot of things around me to even get work done. I

could come to work and do nothing and no one will notice or even ask but the fact that I

am not one to sit idly, I push myself past what obtains, I push myself past the inadequate

work conditions and just get the work done.”

Summary

Chapter four was a presentation of the processes of actual data collection, field

experience and the results on findings. I had started data collection upon receipt of the

Walden IRB approval. The process of collection and analysis took 6weeks because of

some time constraints. This also applied to the time it took me to get participant

reconfirmation of their responses.

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To my research question one which refers to the existing leadership structure in

public service, the participants described it in words like mentoring, unfocused, selective,

autocratic, ill equipped among others. Some gave examples of their reality to buttress

their point. Research question two tried to understand the effect of the existing leadership

approach on effective service delivery and respondents alluded to the demotivating effect

of leadership style on them. They also suggested that it had an overall effect on the

organization as people do not work optimally and are often times indifferent to

organizational goals. To the research three which explored strategic leadership by

assessing organization strategy and participants comprehension of strategy. Some

participants were not aware of the organizations strategy while some knew that it existed

but had never seen it. Some were cognizant of the importance of strategy to the execution

of goals and so they were positive that strategic leadership would boost organizational

outcome and in turn service delivery.

While presenting the results, I noted contraventions in the responses of some

participants and stated it. These infractions could be as a result of self-consciousness to

their plain speaking, personal bias or a need to be conservative for fear of repercussions.

At the start of data collection, I had planned to collect data strictly based on

guidance from my questionnaire. I realized as I progressed that there were unplanned

moments as termed by Fujii, (2015) when information is volunteered. These moments

occurred at the end of the interviews while chitchatting upon conclusion of the interview

and participants volunteered information that added value to data already collected.

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Chapter five will discuss the interpretations of the results from the data analysis. It

will also state the limitations of study, recommendation for further study and the

implications for social change. I would make some recommendations based on my

findings in chapter four.

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Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations

Introduction

This chapter concentrates on the conclusions of the research. The purpose of this

study was to explore leadership effectiveness in public sector administration and the

possibilities of adopting strategic leadership as an alternative approach to the leadership

issues. Literature review revealed the gap in studies in the area of strategic leadership for

public sector administration. I sought to add to the body of knowledge on public sector

leadership by bridging the literature gap.

I had employed a qualitative design utilizing the phenomenological methodology

to assist me in the achievement of the study objective. The research was driven by an

interpretive research paradigm. I relied on the semi structured questions during face-to-

face interviews for my data collection. The questions focused on leadership effectiveness

as it affects public service administration in Nigerian. The questions also concentrated on

the existing leadership approach/style and its resultant effect on staff work attitude in a

bid to understand its impact on public sector success in terms of service delivery to the

populace.

Interpretation of the Findings

The advantage of generated data is that the interpretation of the phenomenon is

that which the participants ascribed to it (Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls, & Ormston, 2013).

Therefore, I analyzed the responses based on this understanding. The results from data

collection/analysis reveal that currently, the administrative state of the public sector can

be classified as ineffectual due to the leadership behavior and ineptitude. There was a

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linkage to the literature review which had exposed the failures of leadership as

represented by poor service delivery, systemic government failures; ubiquitous corruption

and lack of institutional capacity among others (Porter & Watts, 2016; Iheduru, 2016;

Adegbite, 2015; Dike, 2014; Ejimabo, 2013; Okonjo-Iweala, 2012; Sanusi, 2012;

Ogbeide, 2012). This assertion is supported by my research findings in the area of public

sector leadership, its effectiveness and the impact on service delivery.

Existing Public Sector Leadership

Participants noted that there is a strong presence of autocratic leadership as a

predominant approach in public sector administration in Nigeria. Describing scenarios

where “respect for hierarchy is demanded and seen as unconditional obedience to

instructions and directives from superiors” as opined by Participant T01. This in essence

is consistent with the autocratic leadership style. Leaders have a sense of entitlement

which encourages the personalization of the operations of an organization.

Another dominant approach in this sector is dictatorship almost to the point of

narcissism. As noted in the literature review, the Nigerian public sector leadership is

plagued by inefficiency, incompetency and selfishness. (Okonjo-Iweala, 2012; Agbigboa,

2013). The data gathered showed that there was a gulf between the leadership and staff.

This is encouraged by bureaucracy.

The fallout of these leadership approach is that there is a lot of “eye service” going on in

the public service. Eye service in Nigeria means seeming to work when bosses are

around, basically pretending to work.

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Leadership ineffectiveness

There are four important characteristics for effective leadership and they include

vision building, standard bearing, being an integrator and a developer (Bottomley,

Burgess & Fox, 2014; Abrell-Vogel & Rowold, 2014). These are largely lacking in

public sector leadership in Nigeria. The diversity that exists in the country should be

advantageous because different perspectives are brought together for a common goal,

instead it serves to deepen the divide along tribal lines. Recalling a participants’

grievance about his tight office space, he ended by stating “If I was of the same tribe, I

will definitely be treated better”. This brings to the fore, possible issues of

discrimination/tribalism or favoritism as the case may be.

This also highlights teamwork as a basis for cordial work relations. One of the

most important responsibilities of effective leaders is team synergy (Underwood, 2015).

As noted by (Chen & Rainey, 2014) team work is essential to high performance and there

is bound to be conflicts and differences when people with different priorities come

together to work as a team. The leader is supposed to ensure that every one aligns their

energies towards the achievement of organizational goal irrespective of personal

reservations.

As pointed out by Participant T07, “leadership effectiveness is when a leader

gets to the point that he is dispensable”. In essence, when an organization is at the point

where it operates seamlessly irrespective of the presence or absence of the figurative

leader, when there is continuity is assured, then a leader can be said to be effective. It was

also noted by Participant T07 that the public service might never get to that point

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because there will always be those tasks that will not be touched unless a leader is

around.

Leaders are indispensable based on imposed importance or body language.

Participant T02, he said “people don’t want their subordinates to outshine them and so

their proactivity is queried by superiors thereby killing their motivation to be preemptive,

creative. The leaders believe that decision making, no matter how inconsequential, is

solely their purview”. He gave an example by narrating about the time he sent an official

mail that detailed work processes to his colleagues and he was cautioned by his boss for

copying his boss’s superior in the mail as it looked like he was the one doing the job.

Meritocracy and the Federal Character Act

The level of inadequate skills in the public sector could be said to be a direct

result of employment and appointment. Quite a few participants blamed the inadequacies

of ineffective leadership largely on the recruitment process which is aided by the

“Federal Character Act”. The Federal Character Act was establish to address issues of

economic, educational and social inequalities, ethnic representations by ensuring and

enforcing fairness and equitable distribution of public post and socio economic resources.

(Obi, & Ezeogu, 2016; George, Owoyemi, & Adegboye, 2014;

http://www.federalcharacter.gov.ng/) The act basically ensures that every government

agency employs a rational distribution of all coalescing units – state/ethnic of the

Nigerian Federation to prevent marginalization or dominance and any one unit.

The Federal Character Act was established out of a need to manage the public

workforce diversity, address inequality and marginalization of any state or ethnic in

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Nigeria (George, Owoyemi, & Adegboye, 2014). This introduced the quota system

which is applicable across all aspects of the nation, where all states/ethnic groups are

given a proportionate representation in all public organizations (Obi, & Ezeogu, 2016).

The Act in principle has positive objectives but the execution brought about manpower

disadvantages because it due to the quota system, people that are not educationally and

professionally qualified get employed into all levels & positions, irrespective of more

competitive qualifications from other states.

The downside of the Federal Character Act is that it has been detrimental to

meritocracy in the Nigerian public sector because the practice on inclusion trumps

excellence, in a bid to adhere to the Act, merit is often time stepped down. It implies that

people are employed primarily based on their state of origin and secondarily on

qualifications, thereby sacrificing merit for state/ethnicity. It does not necessarily mean

they are not qualified but it means that there might be people better qualified for the

position. It breeds a sense of entitlement in citizens that is harmful to the advantages that

is achieved through competitive recruitment.

Several authors have agreed that the quota system is injurious to the growth of the

country. George, Owoyemi, & Adegboye, (2014) concluded that the Federal Character

Act was counter-productive and inherently discriminatory, Obi, & Ezeogu, (2016)

supports the above statement by noting that the Federal Character Act is contrary to

human development fundamentals and Omeje, Egwa & Adikwu (2016) states that ethnic

influence has degraded the policy, making the process unethical and unfavorable to

meritocracy.

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Meritocracy can also be looked at from a different angle of job competency. A

participant explains it from his/her perspective stating “In public sector, the system is

very clear. No matter how brilliant or smart you are you can never be a director until you

have served out certain number of years, until you pass through a process of one level to

another, to another. All these are built into the public sector to the extent that it is difficult

to implement change”.

Another participant gave another example saying; “here in the public service, you

have a director who is not performing. You have no choice but to allow him to stay until

he retires. The worst you can do is to change his position say swap him to another

department but there is really little you can do. Even if you want to send him out, it will

take the whole of your tenure/time trying to edge him out because of the system. Another

participant noted that merit is relative. Merit based on inclusion or merit based on

qualification. The salient point is that the Nigerian public sector to a large extent does not

run on meritocracy.

Blame Avoidance Behavior (BAB)

The interviews with some participants who were leaders in their units/departments

exposed the blame avoidance behavior or the “blame game” in the system. Blame game

meaning, it is everyone’s’ fault but mine. Hinterleitner (2017) defines blame avoidance

behavior “displayed by public actors as encompasses all kinds of activities intended to

downplay or distance oneself from (potentially) blame-attracting and goal-threatening

events”. This was made apparent by statements like;

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“The staff are unprofessional, they are unskilled for the job that is assigned to

them, they make so many mistakes”

“Many of the staff are not equipped skill wise, they don’t even want to work and

so I have to force them to work, infact I end up doing most of the work myself ”.

Infact the blame game by one participant went all the way back to the colonial

masters. It was noted that some of the leadership mentality was inherited from the

Colonial Masters pre independence of Nigeria. H/She stated that

“There is historical aspect to looking at leadership in the public sector. I believe it

is not happening in the private sector. We inherited the no questions asked regime, where

the public sector was setup to make sure the colonial government succeeds at all cost, no

questions to decisions make, take it as it is …and it is difficult to reform overtime

because we continue to inherit the leadership, and these leaders like to leave some parts

of this elements behind…in those elements reside authority, in those elements there is

power, in those elements there is wait for your turn mentality. There is a chain of

transmission from one set of leaders to another right from the colonial past”.

The need for accountability in public service administration cannot be

overemphasized. According to Bowens (2005) orates that a public officer is primarily

answerable to his organization on the status/outcome of his assignments. To be

accountable, one has to take ownership of an assignment, thereby accepting responsibility

for the outcome.

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Pseudo Leadership

Those in leadership positions, formal or informal, tend be very positive about

their leadership styles. They tended to concentrate on extolling their competence,

inclusiveness and capabilities, believing in their efficiency. In line with the assertion of

Lin, Huang, Chen, & Huang, (2017), some of them exhibited egoist values, self-serving

behaviors and were very status conscious. Some participants suggested that their

superiors believed that they are leading excellently and as such do not entertain ideas or

suggestions for corrections nor improvements.

This is indicative of pseudo leadership, where leaders believe that they are leading

from the point of knowledge but the opposite applies, where actions rarely match words

(Camm, 2016). Authors have written about pseudo transformational leadership

(Kelloway, Gilbert, Fraccaroli, & Sverke, 2017; Christie, Barling & Turner, 2011) and

pseudo authentic leadership (Mills & Boardley 2017; Novicevic, Harvey, Ronald &

Brown-Radford, 2006), where they explored the negative aspect of these leadership

approaches identifying the rise of self-interest and manipulation triumphing over

organizational goals & collective interest.

Lin, Huang, Chen, & Huang, (2017) opines that leaders who act contrary to the

ethical requirements and legitimate values of leadership exhibit pseudo transformational

leadership. In this case, leaders who are individualistic and do not abide by the dictates of

the responsibility entrusted to them can be thus classified. It does not necessarily mean

that work is not being done, it simply means that their approach to achieving results is

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steeped in the personal and not the collective, thereby resulting in organizational

underperformance.

In the case of the Nigerian public sector leadership, one could attribute it to a case

of self-deceit among leaders or self-inflicted shortsightedness. Some leaders in the public

sector believe that they have and exhibit the attributes of leadership which Northouse

(2007) lists as follows; Intelligence, Self-confidence, Determination, Integrity and

Sociability. In reality this belief is not supported by any empirical evidence. Some leaders

have personally assessed themselves and adjudged their qualities to be exceptional. The

disquieting part is that they actually believe it. This led me to wonder how a person could

embrace value addition or superior arguments in any form when h/she does not see any

need for it.

The downside of pseudo leadership in the Nigerian public sector is a

lackadaisical workforce. People have no urge to apply themselves to creativity because

they believe that they would not be encouraged. A participant for example said that he is

indifferent to whatever decisions are taken in the organization because his thoughts,

feelings and ideas are inconsequential. A workforce that is largely detached means that

there will be commitment issues from staff to organizational goals. Thus, one can

conclude that an organization that does not have the guarantee of staff loyalty is at the

risk of stagnancy, unproductivity or decline. In the case of public organizations, the

ramifications of employee nonchalance cuts across all aspects of social and economic

development, it is detrimental to the populace who are the recipients of services rendered

by the sector.

134

Managers vs Leaders.

From some of the responses of some participants, I came to the conclusion that the public

sector has more managers than leaders. Managers because my findings point towards the

conclusion that they do more of execution of instruction within the public sector rules

than planning, innovating or strategizing. To quote Participant T05

“A leader is someone who is able to influence decisions, execute decisions but the

kind of public sector leaders we have, are constrained by pre-existing rules, they

are like robots”.

The research findings support the above assertion as well as that in the literature

review that the managerial approach is a common style of leadership in the public sector

and as such these leaders can be called managers. Zaleznik (1981) opined that managers

are there to maintain balance of operation, to get the work done while leaders create new

approaches and explore new areas thereby inspiring creativity. You find that no one can

give you a clear reason of why certain things are done the way it is done. Participant T03

talked about job assignation not being done based on skill set and when I asked why, s/he

said “it is the way it has always been done”. So you find that employees just meet a

process and continue in the same way without questioning the status. This is descriptive

of a statement by Bolman, & Deal, (2017) which asserts that “when we do not know what

to do, we do more of what we know”.

Lack of Trust

Trust has been eroded in the public sector. Trust is fundamental to effective

problem solving, information exchange, collaboration, efficiency, team work and

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organizational effectiveness (Carnvale &Welcher, 1992). In an organization where

everyone is suspicious of each other, there will be barriers to the efficient flow of work.

A participant noted that “leaders lead you to fail” due to reasons that range from

inadequate work tools to misapplication of a skill set. Van der walle (2017) is of the

opinion that work is smoother when there is trust.

Working in an environment that begets doubt and suspicion or working with

people under the cloud of corruption requires employees to be careful in the manner that

work is executed so that one avoids involvement in cases of fraud or misrepresentation.

Corruption in public sector includes the bribery of public servants, public procurement

violation especially by over-invoicing, outright embezzling of public funds, and the

deliberate ineffectiveness of public sector anti-corruption efforts among others

(Okekeocha, 2013). It also means that compromises are made that derail effective

performance. All these tend to inform the stance of caution in employees.

Belief in organizational efficacy gives an employee boost to personally buy into

organizational goals. This translates to commitment to work, enhanced teamwork and

improved outcomes in the areas of service delivery.

Limitations of the Study

The limitation to the study was as a result of familiarity. Familiarity in the sense

that the participants knew me on a professional level and this resulted in their

consciousness of their responses on the part of some participants. I also think that

acknowledging on some subconscious level that we would continue working together

after the interviews impelled them to be cautious of their answers. Though precautions

136

were taken to ensure utmost confidentiality, I realized that some answers were still

tailored and this resulted in some of the infractions noted above.

Recommendations

The results of this study revealed that the leadership in the Nigerian public sector

needs to be multi-faceted, fluid and dynamic. There are so many internal and external

issues which intertwine to form bureaucratic hurdles for public sector administration. I

have the following recommendations based on my research findings:

Strategy in Leadership Approach

For the public sector leadership to effectively utilize resources to deliver on its

mandate of providing essentials services to the populace as noted by Solaja & Ogunola,

(2016), there is an urgent need to employ different tactics to solving existing problems.

The challenges facing organizations increasingly numerous and evolving strategically

that the demands of leadership & managerial skills have never been more essential

(Bolman & Deal, 2017). Therefore, there is a need to expand the existing knowledge on

the advantages of inculcating strategy into leadership to optimize output at every level.

The public sector in Nigeria has been said to dispirit creativity and innovation in

employees. A participant designated certain aspects of the current leadership as robotic,

where people just carry out end user instructions without personal ingenuity. They are

constrained by rules of the public sector which summarily means that a leader in public

sector is led by the rules that have been historically instituted in the public organization,

rather than being led by his resourcefulness. It is important that strategy coupled with

effective implementation be applied to move the public sector forward. Mazouz &

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Rousseau, (2016) identifies strategy as a tool that helps to intelligently combine the

purposes, objectives, means and resources required to steer public administration towards

tangible results.

Leaders need to get feedback from their subordinates. During data collection, one

of the reoccurring themes was that the staff wanted to be heard, they had so much to say.

They kept deviating from questions and bringing issues that affected their performance

holistically.

Strategy is vital in a dynamic environment, especially a country like Nigeria that

is economically challenged, that stands recurrently on the precipice of ethnic volatility

and agitations from marginalized groups. Taking into consideration that the effectiveness

of a leader is measured on his performance, Mills & Boardley (2017) suggests that there

is a need optimize different methods in different ways to achieve greater success and

surpass performance expectations.

Strategic leadership can tackle the issues corruption in the public sector through

the push for public sector reforms that ensure accountability of public processes.

Corruption in public sector is said to reduce the quality of goods and services delivered to

the public sector. It thrives in this sector because it is often classified as low level

corruption because of its gradual nature as experienced in our daily activities

(Okekeocha, 2013).

In a democratic setting such as Nigeria, the inclusive public management attribute

of strategy will be a positive to the overall effectiveness of public organizations (Elbanna,

Andrews &Pollanen, 2016).

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Figure 2: The role of Strategy in Public Sector Administration

Strategy involves creativity and as noted by Fourie, Van der Merwe & Van Der

Merwe (2017), creativity in leadership has proven to be quite effective in goal

achievement. Strategy promotes cohesiveness in the mechanisms of public

administration. There is a need for internal consistency, and in a country like as diverse

as Nigeria, there is a need for leaders to maximize the uniqueness of people and situations

(Camm, 2016).

Strategic leadership can bridge the disconnect between leaders and followers in

the public sector as interpreted from data collected. The gap could be traced to the vision

buy in. strategic leadership goes through the steps required to sell a vision to followers,

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not impose it. It is not enough to lay out a vision, people must be carried along as co-

creators for them to take ownership of the vision.

Administrative Accountability

Lægreid & Rubecksen (2014) argues that accountability in itself can be

multifaceted and equivocal. Thus I specified administrative accountability because there

is a need to emphasize the managerial aspect to accountability. It requires that public

servants account for the value of their time at work and their performance in relation to

available resources. Olakunle (2015) found that the development of a country has direct

correlation with the discipline of its public officers. They must be answerable for their

actions, attitude and behaviors in relations to the resources – human and financial, that

they are charged to manage. In a nutshell, Administrative accountability is concerned

with the internal discipline, accountability and responsiveness of public servants to

national interests (Healey & Tordoff, 2016).

Capacity Building / Leadership Trainings

The findings of this study show that a lot of people in the public sector are under-

skilled for the position they occupy. Bolman & Deal (2017) orates that to improve

institutional output, the talent of those in charge of leading and managing the

organizations have to be upgraded. He further noted that it could be a case of working

within a limited understanding of leadership and public sector organizations. All this

points to the need for leadership trainings. Effective service delivery from the public

sector necessitates an alignment of training activities to organizational goals (Muin,

2017). It follows that the improvement of the management will enhance organizational

140

output. Recurrent training will update public servants on the best tactics and practices to

help achieve their goals. Carrying out a training needs assessment for public

organizations will better target skill deficiencies with a view of addressing individual

necessities. This will end up strengthening the capacity of public institutions to tackle the

task of public administration.

Implementation & Maintenance

Participants identified implementation of plans or policies as a major setback to

effectiveness for public sector administration. These implementation issues lead to

stagnancy and carry-over of Project/Programmes. It also deepens the inadequate service

delivery from these organizations. Often times these issues are carried over to a new

management and then, they are pushed aside as it doesn’t fall into the new direction of

the new management. In essence, no work done. People know the right things to do, they

know what to do to a certain extent but lack the motivation to do it. One could also

attribute it to the fact that there is lack or lax in supervision.

Feedback Mechanism

Feedback mechanism support innovations (Van Acker & Bouckaert, 2017).

Leaders need to encourage feedback from colleagues with a view to enhancing

performance. The idea that based on position and seniority, one is more knowledgeable

should be totally ruled out. For growth on any level, personal or professional, there is

need for self-assessment and self-management at all times. As noted by Demircioglu &

Audretsch (2017), an established feedback mechanism will enhance public sector

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efficiency, appetite for innovations, employee capabilities and employee motivation to

improve performance.

Reframing

The aptitude to evaluate situations or circumstances from different perspectives in

order to refine your approach and restrategise (Bolman & Deal, 2017). To understand

reframing we have to appreciate what framing means. Framing as defined by Bruycker

(2017), is an interpretation of a perceived reality into salient points when evaluating an

issue. It describes the situation that needs solving by way of presentation of facts. Thus

reframing of an issue is assessing the same concerns from a different viewpoint. In every

particular situation, there are at least four ways to assess it. In essence, I am suggesting

that the public sector leadership needs to view the challenges to leadership and service

delivery from a different angle. It is time to employ a different method to the continued

issue of leadership.

Patriotism

Defines patriotism as public servants putting their country first by demonstrating

an advanced level of concern for the progress of the country through the continued

regard, value, protection and the maintenance of public goods and services. (Houngbo,

Coleman, Zweekhorst, Buning, Medenou, & Bunders, 2017). This is not always the case

in Nigeria. According to Okeke (2016), Patriotism in Nigeria is entrenched in duplicities

and fraudulence. There have so many cases of the misappropriation of public funds and

disregard for work ethics in Nigeria. (Mark, Atairet, & Campus, 2017; Duru 2016;

Dorcas, 2017).

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Public service administrators need to appreciate the opportunity given to them to

serve their country and endeavor to put the populace and country first. They should

exhibit civism which is core value embedded in patriotism. It connotes good citizenship,

social responsibility, self-abnegation and discipline. It means that public servants should

give priority to the citizenry and to national interests over personal interest. This will curb

most of the ills currently bedeviling the Public Sector in Nigeria.

Recommendations for Further Study

Leadership studies in Africa has remained a very interesting topic for researchers,

especially those from the region as it cuts across disciplines by way of its importance to

economic development in the region. It remains a key challenge to scholars to find a

lasting solution to the slow rate of development in the region. This qualitative

phenomenological study accessed leadership in the Nigerian Public Sector and explored

strategic leadership as an alternative the leadership styles presently. I streamlined the

research to a case study of participants from TETFund. I would proceed by

recommending a larger sample size employing other research method like the

quantitative and the mixed methods. I would also recommend that an alternative

approach to leading and service delivery from the point of employees be explored. This

will be looking at it from the angle of self-leadership (Breavart et al, 2015).

The study showed that the public sector used a top to bottom approach when it

comes to public sector leadership and management. The top to bottom approach ensures

that entrenched organization behaviors continue to be passed down to new members of

staff. It enshrines the “wait for your turn attitude. I recommend that future researchers

143

explore the bottom to top approach as a way to stem the continued institutionalization of

the negativities associated with public sector leadership.

I would recommend a comparative analysis of private sector leadership, the non

for profit organisations and the public sector to discover the qualities and indices that

activate success and effectiveness. Leadership development as it relates to public

administration is another aspect that could be explored for further studies as it paves the

way for emergent leadership styles.

Leadership has been tagged a major challenge in African (Fourie, van der Merwe

& Van Der Merwe, 2017). As such I would also recommend that future researchers

should replicate this or a variance of this study in other African countries. In the course of

this study, I came across a school of thought that points towards the African culture as a

deterrent to effective leadership (Kuada, 2010). During data collection, some participants

alluded to the underlying influence of the colonial era on leadership styles of the present

administration. All these are areas of further study.

The study also revealed issues/traces of Pseudo leadership and I would

recommend that further studies be conducted to assess, explore the impact or sources of

pseudo leadership towards possibly containing it in Nigeria’s public sector. I would

recommend investigations into a possible formulation of an African Leadership Theory

as a fallout of specific research into historical leadership trends of African leaders to be

combined with possibly futuristic outlook at the dynamic inclination of African leaders.

144

Implications for Social Change

The implications for social change are far reaching especially in areas of adequate

and efficient service delivery through the provision of necessary socio-economic

development. The findings of this study show that leadership in all its ramifications is

critical to the growth of any organization, sector and a country. The results indicates that

the existing leadership in the Nigerian public sector administration is inadequate. It also

brought up so many issues that were outside the central focus of this study like gender

inequality, tribalism, the disadvantages of the federal character act, divisive mentality as

a result of colonial rule etc.

It is hoped that public sector employees would leverage on the recommendations

of this study to drive professional and organizational planning which will result in

achieving sustainable public sector efficiency. The recommendations can be a foundation

for both personal and organizational reassessment of work ethics.

Awoniyi (2015) posits that those in leadership positions across the country do not

completely appreciate their power to effect sustainable social change. It is hoped that this

study will aid in the enlightenment of leaders especially those in public sector

administration. The legislative arm of government who are in charge of policy making

can utilize the outcome and recommendations of this study to formulate strategies that

will contribute to public sector reform. The recommendations could also stimulate a

rethink of existing policies that encourage or allow certain practices that does not

promote public sector efficiency.

145

For future researchers, the study has exposed certain areas of knowledge gap in

public sector administration which necessitates further study. These include exploring

other approaches to achieving better service delivery, comparative analysis of private and

public sectors in terms of service delivery, staff motivation and self-leadership, assessing

the constraints of the African culture on effective leadership and exploring the values that

underpin decision making in public sector administration.

Impact of the Research Process

At the onset of this study, the rudimentary aim was to understand leadership

effectiveness in public sector administration in Nigeria with the aim of proffering

sustainable solutions to inadequate service delivery among other issues. I hope that the

resultant effect of the research process was progressive change. My study, especially the

data gathering period was particularly interesting because I had a mutual understanding

with the discussants that we will be ultimately contributing to positive social change.

Interacting with individuals throughout the process, gave people the opportunity to think

differently and also reflect on issues that are overlooked on a daily basis. Realistically,

the interviews were a data collection process as well as the beginning of a change

process. I can say that the research process was of positive impact and mutually

beneficial process for the participants and I. One of the feedback received from

participants’ reflections of the interview process include;

“The questions made me rethink about the current situation in the public sector

and my part in it”.

146

From post interview discussions, it was obvious that some people did not

appreciate that there were underlying leadership problems that could easily be solved

with as little as one more hour of personal time or filing properly. Some participants did

not understand the concept of job ownership or buy-in. It took the transformation of

thoughts into words to understand that there was an obvious need to address the problems

inherent in public sector administration.

Conclusion

The primary purpose of government is to better the lives of its citizens (Obi, &

Ezeogu, 2016). To achieve this crucial goal, the government employs the public sector

machinery to ensure a fair and evenhanded treatment through effective service delivery to

its citizens (Pandey, Davis, Pandey, & Peng, 2016; Murtala & Marshall, 2015). Thus,

taking into consideration the distinctive role of public sector, it is safe to say that the

administration of this sector will be continually scrutinized for their significance to

national growth and development. Accordingly, the effective administration of the public

sector is assumed to be directly related to effective service delivery and the success of the

Government/Nation. So long as leadership is instrumental to the progress of a nation, the

evolution of leadership will remain a constant. Its importance can never be over

emphasized or over researched towards the enhancement of leadership outputs.

As noted by John & Musa (2014), momentous changes are happening around the

world, Nigeria as a part of the global system must adapt. Thus, there is a need for

constant education and exposure of public servants to global best practices as well as

trainings in areas relevant to organizational growth and by extension economic growth.

147

For public administration to be impactful and successful, leadership is very

critical and so the relationship between public administration and leadership should be

synergetic as effective public administration is dependent on effective leadership.

Leadership as it is a continuum, should be fluid. Adaptability to situational dynamics,

especially in the case of Nigeria, will always be an added advantage to progressive

thinkers.

148

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